Hainanese chicken rice in Hong Kong for US$7 – at Water Gate Chicken Rice, go for the bird but stay for the dessert
- Water Gate Chicken Rice in Tsim Sha Tsui serves up tasty Thai treats, but most people head there for the chicken rice
- You can order the chicken poached or fried. Both were tender, but there was a little to much breading on the crisp version
Water Gate Chicken Rice, on a bustling Tsim Sha Tsui road in Hong Kong, serves a variety of Thai favourites, but the main star is its khao mun gai, or Hainanese chicken rice.
The dish, popular throughout Southeast Asia, was created by Chinese migrants from the southern island of Hainan. The Thai name, khao mun gai, translates to chicken fat rice. The sauce it’s served with is made with yellow soy beans, thick soy sauce, chillies and vinegar – different to the red sauce served in Malaysia and Singapore.
We visited Water Gate Chicken Rice, on Cameron Road, late on a Sunday night, but the shop was still crowded and we had to wait about 15 minutes to be seated.
The restaurant offers two types of chicken – poached and fried. We ordered the chicken rice (HK$52) with one of each, and decided to pay an extra HK$10 to get thigh meat.
The poached chicken was lean, tender and cooked just right, and had all the bones removed, making it easy to eat. The fried chicken was crisp, but had a little too much breading. The rice itself was dry and could have done with more chicken oil for flavour and fragrance.