Chapter 34 Wenchang Chicken and Jiaji Duck

A few years ago, a restaurant selling Hainanese chicken rice appeared on Zhonghua Road in Taipei. Because of its high quality and low price, the business was booming.Taipei’s catering industry has always had a bad example of swarming to follow up. It didn’t take long before there were as many as seven or eight restaurants selling Hainanese chicken rice near Ximending, Taipei.Hainanese Chicken Rice, to be more precise, the real name should be "Wenchang Chicken Rice". General restaurants in Hong Kong are called by the name Hainan Chicken Rice.At first, someone said in a Hong Kong newspaper that Hainanese chicken rice came from Singapore. Some people refuted it, so a debate started in the newspapers. Where did Hainanese chicken rice come first? .Finally, an old diner pointed out that it first appeared in the Guangzhou Restaurant on Wenchang Road, Guangzhou City in the 32nd year of the Republic of China. The name of Wenchang Road in Guangzhou is that there was a Wenchang Temple before the road was opened. It was named Wenchang Road, so it has nothing to do with Wenchang County in Hainan Island, and the photo was taken to prove it, so this pen war stopped.As soon as the Guangzhou restaurant opened, it called "Wenchang Chicken" and "Jiaji Duck".Of course, Wenchang chicken refers to the chicken in Wenchang County, Hainan Island, not the chicken in Wenchang Road, Guangzhou.

Jiaji is located in the east of Hainan Island, which belongs to Qionghai County. The locals raise Jiaji ducks in a similar way to Peking duck.They raise ducks with a kind of "cheng", with holes in the bottom of the cheng to remove the dirt, and the ducks are raised to grow fat, so that the cheng is full.This kind of duck eats all day long and has no place to turn around, so the meat is fat and the bones are soft and crisp. Anyone who has eaten Jiaji duck will naturally know how it tastes.Mr. Jiang Fangzhen (Baili), a military expert, had two Jiaji ducks given to him by a friend in Qionghai County. He thought that Jiaji duck was a rare duck, and it was far more delicious than Peking duck!

There is a food stall in Singapore called Ruiji restaurant. Forty or fifty years ago, there was a man named Mo Furui in Wenchang County, Hainan. Yuan Ruolai inherited.Yuan Ruo said that when his great-grandfather first arrived in Singapore, he pushed a handcart and peddled Wenchang chicken and Jiaji duck along the street. Every day, he made six chickens and ducks each. Because his old man had unique skills in purchasing chickens and ducks, the cart came out soon after. , chickens and ducks are sold out.He said that if a slaughtered chicken is fresh or not, the main thing is to look at the chicken. The bright red chicken is good, and the purple one is not very fresh.Live chickens first listen to the sound and look at the movement. It must be loud and vigorous. If the cry is thin and deep, the neck is stretched continuously to breathe, and the mouth is foaming, then don't buy that kind of chicken.The view of ducks is different from that of chickens. Ducks are mainly made of tail oil, and the fatness and thinness of a duck determine the quality of a duck.A duck's eyes are flexible and clear, and it is a good duck. If the duck's head keeps drooping, it has either been filled with water or sand.The most important thing to buy ducks is to distinguish between old and young ducks. The feathers of old ducks are relatively rough, so they are only suitable for stewing.As for the Jiaji duck, it must be a female duck. If it is raised properly, the duck will be fat and tender.After years of hard work, Shui Kee bought this shop at a food stall in Singapore, and can sell hundreds of chickens and ducks every day.It is no longer possible to supply the ducks raised in the chengdu. If the duck meat is not used in the chengdu, the duck meat will definitely deteriorate. In order not to spoil the reputation gained over the years, the Jiaji duck was stopped and sold exclusively, specializing in Hainanese chicken rice.Selling 600 to 700 chickens every day is a normal business now, and it is not uncommon for thousands of chickens to be sold when you arrive at the gate or there are a large number of tourist groups flocking there!Now, not only Sui Kee’s family sells Wenchang chicken rice at food stalls in Singapore, but ordinary old diners still trust Sui Kee to take care of them if they want to eat Wenchang chicken rice.The business has grown, and the times are different. His Wenchang Chicken Rice is not as sophisticated as it was in the Mo Furui era, but Shui Kee still has strict conditions for purchasing chickens, and maintains a certain style.Take the firewood as an example, each piece of firewood has the same thickness, thinness and length, so that the firepower will stop evenly.Other Hainanese chicken rice sellers cannot do these details.It has been 40 to 50 years since Shui Kee opened in Middlerd, Singapore. It is rumored that the Singapore government will renovate the old houses in this area. The future fate of Shui Kee Hotel is unknown.