Come Away with Me

Singapore Chicken Rice

Maeda sensei works as a nutritionist at Narao School Lunch Center (奈良尾給食センター) and is responsible for planning all the school lunch menu. Just a note for some who may not be familiar with the typical lunch scene here, many schools in Japan do not have canteens or cafeterias due to small student population. Some schools go by the bento system where students bring lunch boxes prepared from home. Others order lunch from kyuushoku center that specifically prepare meals for schools located within a certain area. All students and teachers will eat the same food and because there are no canteens in the school compound, classrooms are transformed into lunch rooms everyday for an hour during noon. Whether your lunch is appetising or not really depends on the school lunch center and the individual nutritionist. And it's worth a mention here that fortunately for me, the lunch center in Narao is reputed to be the best among the three on the island.

Which brings me to the point of this entry. So last Sunday's dinner was at Maeda sensei's place and you can bet i really looked forward to it. After eating school lunch for half a year now and liking most of what's been served, finally i get to meet the mastermind behind it all. Moreover I've heard much about Maeda sensei's good culinary skills and dedication when it comes to planning a well-balanced diet for the kids at school so i was really excited to be invited to her place for a meal.

Before going, I was informed that Maeda sensei was going to prepare some Singaporean style dish especially for me that night. And that she would like to know more about Singapore food and cooking and perhaps even design a Singaporean menu for school lunch one of these days. The ALT before me is from Britain and i learnt that a British menu consisting of roast beef dish and bread pudding was served during lunch before.

I hope you are as curious as i was to know what Singaporean fare i had for dinner last Sunday. Yes, you are right, it's none other than the famous chicken rice! Well, actually friends who know me well know that i am not a fan of chicken rice really. In fact i can't recall when was the last time i had it. Though i sort of suspected that the taste might not really be the one we know, i didn't expected it to look entirely different either. If you are doing a double take, no you're not mistaken, those are avocadoes mixed with chicken pieces and served with tumeric powdered yellow rice! Yes, this is Maeda sensei's Singapore chicken rice, or rather her idea of what chicken rice in Singapore is like. While it wasn't bad tasting at all, it's definitely nowhere near the original! Now it's really time to get one of those Prima Taste pre-packed chicken rice paste and get it send over to Japan so the folks can have a taste of the real stuff :p

posted by テレサ @ 11:06 PM