This is no chicken feed

We have not covered the leisure front for some time now. Not that I have not been indulging my gastronomic pursuits all the while though, because foodie that I am, the tummy always begs to be sated, the palate seeks titillation every so often. But as we get on with age, we can’t do this as often as, say, twenty years ago when we had no respect for blood pressure and sugar levels.

Now with a new mindset, my generation of baby boomers can no longer ignore the signs of wisdom (read: aging), when girth overtakes chest measurements and biceps bulge the opposite way.

With a lot of will and determination, though, I am now very regular with my gym routine, the girth has tapered some to show off a waist, with most of the paunch gone, and the biceps are starting to grow back in their rightful place.

But all these gains simply cannot be had with a lousy diet.

The family has made chicken a staple at home, only indulging in pork occasionally and beef even less.   In one of our “more chicken” moods, we re-discovered how Hainanese Chicken can be truly enjoyable and tried it in several places. A good friend, Danny Isla, president of Lexus-Manila shared that one of the best Hainanese chicken in town that he and wife Joy truly relished is the one at Old Penang Restaurant at the Resorts World. Danny is another certified foodie and he and Joy make the rounds of the good dining places in town. When he says it’s good, it must be good.

Resorts World is now more than the casino and Las Vegas-type of entertainment that many people have started to discover and enjoy. They have transformed the whole complex into a hotel-casino-mall that is now the latest complete destination for the family. The casino itself is always full, and though I myself am not a fan of casinos, they truly have one of the best margaritas in town, and reasonably priced yet. On lazy Sunday nights, after the last evening mass, the wife and I enjoy a glass each of their frozen margarita. It is just tart enough and gives just the right kick for a pleasurable drive home. Try it while watching the Vegas-type show.

Old Penang is a non-pretentious type of restaurant on the fourth level of the new annex which houses a variety of shops—from restaurants to fashion houses, from optical shops to cinemas. Beside the annex building, they also have four levels of parking with cheaper rates than the ones at the main casino. You step out of the parking level right into your floor.

Just like Danny said, it was nothing fancy. Old Penang has about twelve tables including the ones outside, plain tables and chairs in white enamel that gave the restaurant a clean, decent look. Like most Hong Kong shops, one could see the steamed fowls hanging through the glass. Apparently, Old Penang has carved out a name for itself in its home base in Malaysia, and they have brought their hawker-food cuisine to Manila. It is owned by a Malaysian, and their chef I understand is Malaysian as well, so they have not compromised their authenticity.

As hawker foods go, their menu is very reasonable. One order of hainanese chicken which is one quarter of a chicken and rice and a free bowl of soup is P245—a complete meal in itself. The steamed chicken (it is not served hot by the way) is juicy and not dry and is doused with a little broth to keep it that way when served. An order comes with little saucers of grated ginger and good Malaysian chili sauce which packs a wallop for non-chili lovers like me. If you feel like more ginger and chili, by all means, just ask the friendly service staff. They won’t charge you for it. Just don’t ask for more chicken pieces. The chicken, though, seems too small, like our native chickens do. This same dish in Macau will give you hefty-sized chicken, yellow with fat.

The soup of course is just clear chicken broth, no fancy seasonings or even vegetables. But it’s free, and it really is good chicken essence. The hainanese rice is a generous cup and it is light and buttery, the perfect accompaniment for the pure, honest-to-goodness taste of plain steamed or boiled chicken. Others may argue that it is bland and unexciting, but if you have weaned your taste buds from the assault of too much spices and salt in your diet, this one is a good choice.

For vegetables, we tried the server’s suggestion. I can’t recall the name now but it was basically boiled lettuce with beef floss. This one, I learned from Babes, is dried shredded beef pork, seasoned and quite tasty. Imagine a bland plate of boiled lettuce, and all it took was a sprinkling of this floss to make it one palatable, even exciting dish at P200. Talk about hawker food indeed.

Hawker food necessarily involves food that has very, very little preparation time but should come out very, very tasty as well. In this case, the hainanese chicken comes already steamed and quartered, and needs only to be chopped into bite sizes upon order. That’s why it doesn’t come hot. The broth, though, could be kept warm so the diner does not have to suffer through utterly cold meat. Old Penang’s broth is very light, with just a little soy sauce and a hint of sweetness to it.

The lettuce dish, I suspect, was just a handful of plain iceberg lettuce simply dunked in boiling water to wilt it and then sprinkled with a healthy dose of dried shredded pork or floss. I also detected bits of deep-fried pork fats which rendered the dish very tasty indeed. Reminded me of the “empella” which my mom used to fry and serve alongside any dish to make it more exciting. It was salty, fried to a crisp and of course very oily. The sinfulness of the salt and fat was what defined it, but in those days, who cared about cholesterol and kidney stones? Going back to the lettuce dish, the taste belies the simplicity of the preparation of this dish.

Enough said for the modest dish that is hainanese chicken which many still debate as originally Malaysian or Singaporean. Whatever, it is definitely Asian food and hawker food at its best.

When I am done with my chicken days, at least for the moment, I spice up my life a little with a glorious, glistening plate of good old medium-rare Angus steak with marbled fat that tastes like butter. Not too often, mind you, just when the doctor is not looking, and it is precisely what I just did one harried day very recently when lunch could only be had at 3:00 p.m. and my stomach had inaudible sounds that could only mean: no more chicken today. The occasion was simply divine, but then that is another story altogether for certified steak lovers like you and me, one that is worth telling at another time.

For now, try eating healthy for a change. Try the hainanese chicken.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

For comments: (e-mail) [email protected]