How much do you like chicken rice? For a YouTuber in Singapore, her love for the dish is enough for her to eat at 100 chicken rice stalls in the name of science.
Angel Hsu published the most comprehensive chicken rice review anyone has ever seen, spending S$5,000 and two months to find out which stall in Singapore serves the best chicken rice.
While she was at it, Ms Hsu also tested every single dish for bacteria at a lab.
Her final verdict of the best stall in Singapore might surprise you. Read on to find out more.
Ms Hsu introduced the video by explaining how she will rank the countless places in Singapore that sell this popular dish.
These were the criteria:
In the end, she sifted through 100 chicken rice stalls and picked four of her favourites — two kampung chicken rice stalls and two that serve normal chicken rice.
She also tested every sample for bacteria content at an accredited laboratory.
“I am the first person in the world to spend S$5,000 and two months to produce this most comprehensive review on chicken rice,” she said.
If you don’t have nine minutes to watch the entire video, she not only shared the spreadsheet with every review, but also picked her four favourite stalls:
These were rated based on the cost per gram of each portion, as well as whether the dish tastes good.
Aside from Ms Hsu, her cameraman also chimed in with his ratings. The ratings that Ms Hsu and her cameraman gave each stall are also included in the spreadsheet.
They ranked them based on factors such as meat tenderness, rice fragrance, taste of the chilli and soup, as well as the overall saltiness of the dish.
After the taste test, Ms Hsu packed another portion from each stall into a sealed plastic bag while donning personal protection gear .
She then put the sealed chicken rice into an ice box to prevent further bacteria growth and transported the sample to the lab to test within four hours of purchase.
Source: ANGEL HSU on YouTube
Specifically, she wanted to find out how much Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria is present in each serving.
Apparently, some stalls had a bacteria count that exceeded 490,000 units (cfu/g).
To give these stalls a fair chance, she sent the chicken rice samples for testing twice. Both yielded the same results.
Putting things into context, she noted that Singapore’s food safety regulations stipulates that the E. coli count in any ready-to-eat food has to be less than 100 units.
For this video, the YouTuber found that 50% of the stalls tested had a bacteria count that exceeded the criteria.
Ms Hsu, who has a Masters in Public Health, explained that severe cases of E. coli contamination can lead to kidney failure.
Source: ANGEL HSU on YouTube
She revealed that because many of the chicken rice dishes she ate had a ton of bacteria, she got diarrhoea every day during the review.
“A normal person should not consume this much bacteria,” she stressed.
Overall, Ms Hsu selected Ah Five Hainanese Chicken Rice / Fried Rice / Porridge as the one with the best soup.
Source: ANGEL HSU on YouTube
She learnt from one of the stallholders that they boiled the soup with over ten kampong chickens, radish, and carrots to boost the sweetness of the soup.
The stall with the best chilli, per Ms Hsu’s extensive research, is Kampong Chicken Eating House.
Source: ANGEL HSU on YouTube
She claimed that the chilli they serve enhances the taste of the chicken and the rice.
In terms of rice, Ah Boy Chicken Rice (Mentor Eric Teo) came out on top.
Source: ANGEL HSU on YouTube
“The rice is so, so, so fragrant! It’s the perfect rice! Ten out of ten,” gushed Ms Hsu.
Overall, the stall that Ms Hsu enjoyed the most was Wee Kim Hainanese Chicken Rice in Yishun. She highlighted the Hong Kong-style ginger that they serve with their chicken rice, as well as their crunchy beansprouts.
Source: ANGEL HSU on YouTube
According to her, the chicken meat from Wee Kim is also tender and juicy.
It seems that impressed is an understatement for Ms Hsu when it comes to this stall, as she declared, “The standard is way beyond any hawker stall can give.”
She elaborated that she chose these stalls because they were able to nicely combine the different variables in a set of chicken rice.
“There were other stalls that served great chicken, but their rice sucks. Spoils the entire experience.”
If you’d like to see all of her reviews in detail, you may access her Google Sheet here. Do you agree with her ratings? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from ANGEL HSU on YouTube.
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