Fowl play in the kitchen

Chicken rice - a luxury item in the 1950s

WHENEVER I eat chicken rice – Ipoh chicken rice, Singapore chicken

rice or home-cooked chicken rice – warm memories of the 1950s flood my

mind. As a little girl, I was overjoyed whenever my mother cooked chicken rice,

which was considered a luxury item then. We had fish and vegetables daily – a

whole chicken was relished only on special occasions and festivals.

Incidentally, a cardiologist, a family doctor, speaks highly of the diet of

the 1950s and 1960s. He laments on the diet of Malaysians today. “The present

generation eat too much meat,” he says. “We should revert to the types of food

our mothers and grandmothers used to prepare – especially green vegetables

stir-fried with slices of meat or fish.”

“Look at the dinner dishes at social gatherings – they are mostly meatbased

with only one or two vegetable dishes. If you really love your heart, you

should eat less meat and more vegetables and fruits,” he advises.

Coming back to chicken rice, it is a favourite fast food of Malaysians. As

a senior, I often cook chicken rice when I need to serve food at short notice. My

chicken rice is prepared, “press-button” style. I cook the rice (with some butter,

salt and chopped garlic) in the electric rice cooker by pressing the “rice cooking”

button. I steam a marinated chicken over the boiling rice. Once the button springs

to “keep warm” mode, my chicken-cum-rice is ready. With a simple vegetable

soup, sliced cucumber and chilli sauce, my chicken rice can be served in a little

over half an hour.

Chicken rice - a favourite fast food of Malaysians

My mother’s chicken rice in the good old days was prepared differently.

In those days, we did not have a refrigerator. If we wanted to eat chicken, we

had to buy it, live, from the market. I used to watch my mother slaughtering the

chicken effortlessly in the kitchen. This is something most modern mums do not

(or do not know how to) do.

Gripping the fowl deftly with her left hand, one finger curled around its

legs and the other fingers holding its wings and head, Mother used her right hand

to pluck the feathers from a delicate spot on the fowl’s neck before she slit its

throat. Then, holding the chicken upside down, she collected the blood in a

bowl that had water and salt in it. Urgh! I could never do that – I would really

chicken out and faint on the spot!

I remember one funny incident when the chicken nearly got away. My

siblings and I had gathered around to watch Mother teach a relative, Jen, the art

of chicken-slaughtering. Jen lost control and the chicken got away because she

did not slit the throat correctly.

There was pandemonium in the kitchen as the chicken pranced and

paraded around with its head cocked sideways while the adults gave chase.

Can you imagine the din when the aluminium tins did somersaults during the

chase? When the chicken finally landed on the dinner plate, my siblings and I

lost our appetite!

Coming back to the slain fowl: it was soaked in hot water for a while.

Mother then teased out the chicken’s feathers with her bare hands. It seemed so

easy! Nowadays, the vendor in the wet market de-feathers the chicken in a

machine. He throws away most of the internal organs, but in the 1950s, most of

the entrails were retained and relished at the dining table. The word “cholesterol”

was not in our vocabulary yet.

The coagulated blood, cut into cubes, was fried with chives and tofu.

The small intestines were fried with green vegetables. Chicken liver, gizzard and

heart were cooked with black sauce or fried with other green vegetables.

As for the chicken, Mother cooked it her way – “submerged style”.

First she boiled some water in a big pot. Then she placed the whole chicken in

it, fully submerged. After 20 minutes, she turned the chicken and let it stay

submerged for another 20 minutes. “The chicken meat will be cooked perfectly

this way – not overdone,” she remarked.

The rice was prepared differently. Mother fried the washed rice with oil,

garlic and salt before placing it in a pot with the correct amount of “soup water”

(from the pot that cooked the chicken). All the cooking was done with firewood.

She had to watch the fire, controlling the “high” and “low” by adding or removing

firewood – there was no “keep warm” mode like that found in present-day

electric rice-cookers. Mother cut the cooked chicken into bite-size pieces,

arranging them evenly with the choice portions – the drumsticks and wings –

pointing in four directions. This is because we children were not allowed to pick

and choose our favourite chicken pieces; we had to eat the piece on the plate

that was facing us!

Mother’s traditional chicken rice was served with her special “ginger

dip” – finely chopped ginger, salt and oil. Together with soup, sliced cucumber,

vegetable dishes with yummy entrails, my siblings and I would tuck into the

chicken rice extravaganza with gusto. Although Mother’s chicken rice took

hours to prepare, she was rewarded by our happy and satisfied responses.

4 generations ready to enjoy chicken rice in 2014

On reflection, I feel glad to be in today’s high technology age. I buy my

chicken all dressed up and nicely packed from the hypermarket. Modern

appliances like rice-cookers, gas burners, slow-cookers, pressure-cookers and

microwave ovens are indispensable kitchen appliances. I cannot imagine starting

a fire with matches and firewood every time I need to cook (except of course if

I’m camping in the woods).

Anyone game for chicken rice: press-button or firewood style?

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This article was published in the Star (Malaysian newspaper) on 26th May 2003. 

More photos are added here.

This article and the recipe for chicken rice, is published in my cookbook, 

"Quick and Healthy Meals".

For more information on the book, please write to:

quickandhealthy@yahoo.com