[Jakarta] The Heartwarming Hainan Chicken Rice

6:52 PM

Do you have any certain food that has a special place in your heart? The one that you always longing every time you feel down, sick or just a sudden crave out of nowhere? The one that you will always love no matter how it taste? Well let me introduce you to mine.

I have this thing with Hainan Chicken Rice. No matter how full I am, no matter how bad it taste, I will always eat it. I don’t know how this all started, but I sort of grew some love for Hainan Chicken Rice. This love for Hainan Chicken Rice has set me on a quest to find the best Hainan Chicken Rice in the world. Well if not the world, in Jakarta would be enough, at least for now. And probably I have found it.


Meet Chatter Box, an old name in a peranakan food world. Starting as a small café, Chatter Box has grown into a big restaurant with a full set of food in their menu. They have tons of great food to choose. But what caught my heart the most? Their heartwarming Hainan Chicken Rice.

The Hainan Chicken Rice came in a beautiful set which contains rice, chicken, soup, sautéed veggies and some condiments (grated ginger, soy sauce and sambal). Everything was placed beautifully and very appetizing. I still can remember how the delicious smell of the Hainan Chicken Rice make me want to just eat it away.


From what I read, cooking a perfect Hainan chicken is a bit tricky. You have to boiled/steamed it in a very long time with the right heat/pressure so the chicken meat won’t dry out. Not to mention the avoiding the chicken skin to shrink. A big salute to Chatter Box for delivering the best Hainan chicken I ever taste. The chicken was very juicy, tender and tasty. Not to mention the perfect beautiful layer of the chicken skin on top of it.


The rice was perfect also. The rice breaking up (I don’t know how to describe rice lol) in a good way. It was tasty and fragrant. Sadly the soup wasn’t as good as the last time I came here. It was a bit oily for my liking, but still taste quite good.

I also ordered Es Merah Delima for desserts to complete my meal that day. The delima used in this dessert is not from pomegranate. I think it was made from bengkuang (jicama) covered in tapioca. I quite like this dessert, but it needs a little bit more sugar or maybe they could cut the ice.


My dining experience in Chatter Box was considerably great. Even though the waiter was quite slow that day (to be fair, I came at lunch time and the restaurant was pretty packed) Chatter Box will always be my one of favorite place to eat.

***

Chatter Box
Plaza Senayan
Jl. Asia Afrika no 8
Senayan, Jakarta
DKI Jakarta, Indonesia
(+6221) 579 00 057

Opening hours: 10 AM – 10 PM

Food: 4,5/5
Ambiance: 4/5
Price: 4/5

Service: 3/5

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