A history of Hainan’s leftover soup

Tell me cook how do you boil your chicken I suppose you cut it into big chunks plop it into water and wait like mere mortals do Or perhaps you truss up the sorry bird whole and boil it Itrsquos just chicken and itrsquos just boiling right How complicated could that beMaybe this is where I should tell you about the humble feast I eat at least twice a week for the paltry price of 40 baht or 95 rupees Irsquoll be sitting at a steel table in a Bangkok roadside eatery across the road named after the only dish on its menu mdash Khao Man Gai in Thai but plain Hainan Chicken and Rice to you You would never suspect it was one of the four signature dishes of Chinarsquos Hainan province You wouldnrsquot believe it found a place on CNNGOrsquos list of the worldrsquos 50 most delicious dishesNow yoursquore about to find out whyWe start in Wenchang city where theyrsquove been breeding a small fleshy freerange chicken since the Qin dynasty 2000 years ago fattening it to succulence on a diet of coconut and peanut bran When it is ready for the table the Wenchang chicken is boiled mdashnot how you boil birdsmdashbut with the stove turned offThe broth is conjured up from pork and chicken bones flavoured with garlic star anise and celery Different families choose different spices Just as it comes to a boil though the fire is switched off and the bird carefully lowered into the soup Over the next six or so hours it will cook gently in the diminishing heat of the cooling stockThe result will be what the Chinese call lsquosilky chickenrsquo The chefrsquos knife will sink into the flesh as though it were butter the chicken cut into slices will be smooth and wet Those slices will be served like a winning hand of cards on a warm mound of jasmine rice along with a tangy spicy dip of soy sauce green and red chillies garlic and maybe chopped scallions There will be three diagonally sliced cucumbersThere is absolutely no doubt yoursquoll be back for more But the taste still mystifies you rich subtle textured and full of wispy memories yoursquove yet to meet To understand the provenance of that taste we will return to Hainan and check the kitchen at dayrsquos end when the customers have gone home and they are closing shop Dishes are being washed and put awayAlso Read Will our democracy survive ModiYou see that a little bit of the stock still remains in the tureenIn Hainan they donrsquot throw this away but simply add it to the next dayrsquos bouillon Day after day not a drop is wasted all of it recycled yesterdayrsquos flavours blending with tomorrowrsquos creating unpredictable notes and essences Over generations this iterative process results in a master stock that grows in richness and complexity the more birds are boiled in it while daily yielding boiled meat that teems with tantalising flavours Some of Hainanrsquos master stocks are believed to be centuries old passed down through a timeline of cooksFour maybe seven or ten generations later that soup is unique and unrepeatable the secret signature of that particular familyrsquos specific kitchen It is that familyrsquos liquid gold and can even be offered as part of a dowryOf course the Hainan Chicken and Rice I eat in Bangkok has no such history In Thailand it is served with fresh cucumber slices a bowl of clear bouillon from the broth with a single slice of horse radish at the bottom and sometimes a slab of chickenrsquos blood tofuIn the variation yoursquod be served in Malacca the rice is sweet sullied with coconut milk In Ipoh theyrsquoll add bean sprouts to the rice while in certain other quarters the chicken will be lightly fried after boiling to give it a crisp outer at the cost of dehydrating it a littleIn Singapore where it enjoys cult status as a national dish it is available everywhere in stalls with extras such as hard boiled eggs chicken liver or braised dark tofu with oyster sauceYou can be a tourist or a purist If the latter travel to Hainan research the legendary family kitchens and give yourself the treat of a lifetime Or as a tourist settle for second best and try Hainan Chicken and Rice as served on southeast Asian streets just boiled sliced chicken on fragrant rice with a fiery dip cucumbers and a bowl of clear soupEven without the history your first bite of the chicken will feel like satin melting like chicken seldom does and releasing flavours that merely boiled chicken should not Cinnamon Aniseed Celery Ginger Together with the warm unpolished jasmine rice and a touch of the darkbrown chillygarlic sauce suddenly bland dresses up as spicy and unexceptional starts dancing with amazingIn that moment you will become like some Confucius as you realise that once again the whole has emerged greater than the sum of its partsYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper