2 days ago
Xiang Jiang Claypot Rice: Gingery claypot sesame chicken & claypot rice with salted meat at Lakeside
Xiang Jiang 's 4.2-star rating (330+ reviews) on Google Maps was what interested me the most when discovering its existence in Lakeside. How does a small stall in so ulu a district end up with a score as high as this?
On the way to my chosen stall, I pulled up the page once more, as I always do, to prepare myself so that I don't wander into the tasting experience blindly. Although the majority of the reviews were still positive, there were several new-ish ones which complained about a drop in quality and lack of flavour. Hm…
Nevertheless, I decided to remain optimistic and try the food with an open mind. Here's a tip when travelling: don't follow Google Maps's directions blindly. I was instructed to travel a whole round by bus, but I alighted earlier than instructed to. All I had to do was cut through some of the HDB blocks to find the Chang Cheng Mee Wah coffeeshop!
Xiang Jiang Claypot Rice only accepts cash, which is something I learned only when I had made my way to the counter phone-in-hand. Payments, as it turns out, are to be made only after the food is served directly to your table. I also appreciated that the vendor delivering the dishes noticed I had a friend with me and brought along 2 bowls (and an additional plate for scraps, if any) for our use.
The Mixed Claypot Rice (S$9/S$17/S$25/S$30) seemed promising, and I was looking forward to trying it. While the official 2 pax portion cost S$17, we decided to share the S$9 single pax portion to avoid getting too full.
At first sight, it didn't seem too bad. Chicken and preserved meats were laid atop the white rice, from which a meaty aroma wafted. The chunks were juicy enough, though I wish that smaller pieces had been mixed throughout rather than big ones just placed on the top.
Before digging into the rice, I drizzled some dark soy sauce over it, especially around the edges to season and enhance the crisp.
Sadly, the rice itself wasn't that flavourful. I had hoped to taste some five spice, but not even the dark soy sauce helped to provide any extra umami. The grains were hard, too — not tough but possibly a little undercooked.
The rice at the bottom was what I would describe as 'unevenly charred'. While I'm a huge fan of crispy rice, especially for such a dish, this one was a miss. Most parts failed to crisp up even after being in contact with the claypot for a long while, and those which did end up tough rather than crunchy. Furthermore, the crunchy bits had a burnt flavour which quite frankly wasn't the best for my tastebuds.
Based on observation, the preserved meats included lap cheong, yun cheong (Chinese preserved liver sausage) and salted fish. As a lover of lap cheong, the small amount of the sweet preserved pork sausage saddened me.
The black sausage slices, which I soon identified as yun cheong (thanks, Google!) tasted much like lap cheong. It did possess a more powdery texture and tasted strongly of iron, so it wasn't my favourite, though I didn't think too much of it.
Of course, the salted fish was salty. There wasn't much to say about it, except that it did add some flavour to the otherwise bland rice. Do watch out for tiny bones while eating this, though – I made the mistake of taking too big a bite out of it.
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It was time to try the second dish we ordered from Xiang Jiang Claypot Rice. Will the popular Claypot Sesame Chicken (S$12/S$17) be the redeeming grace for the meal?
Before I continued tucking in, I quickly removed any huge chunks of ginger that we could accidentally chomp on. As fragrant as it is, I don't think anyone would appreciate the sudden burst of spice when they expected meat instead.
Now this was a dish I could get behind! The chicken was ridiculously moist, and when coated with the rich savoury sauce, it was actually quite palatable. The pieces of meat were large enough, and there was a good portion of them that was enough to be shared between us both. Their ginger and chive aroma and the sauce greatly aided in making the rice more palatable, thank goodness.
The only big downside to the dish was the chicken's fattiness, as mildly gelatinous lumps were hidden within every crease of the chunks. I had to spit out the fat and skin in between every bite, as they were mildly off-putting.
Despite my initial excitement, I left the coffeeshop feeling a little underwhelmed. Nevertheless, it was sufficient for sustenance, and my companion and I did manage to fill our tummies whilst we updated each other on our lives.
The Mixed Claypot Rice was subpar if not for the tender chicken. I had been looking forward to staving off my cravings for crispy claypot rice, but I guess I'll have to look for that in a different place. I'll give the Claypot Sesame Chicken the benefit of the doubt though; it was decently done and I wouldn't mind ordering it again.
Expected Damage: S$9 – S$17 per pax
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