>chilli ginger sauce

Our amah in Singapore was a sweet, gentle woman, not a particularly memorable cook. Because she was from Hainan, I would try to ask her about Hainan chicken rice back home, which was, I heard, different from Singaporean Hainanese chicken rice. I remember her smiling and continuing on with her chores. I never learned her language.

The Hainan, or Hainanese, chicken rice is one of my favorite dishes. The one I remember most fondly, the most delicate chicken dish you'll ever encounter, was from a hawker stall in Marine Parade.
The recipe sounds deceptively simple, although the best one I know involves plunging the bird in ice bath in between steeping sessions.It also requires the perfect chili ginger sauce. Small red chilies, sometimes called cili padi (not "silly putty" - in Malaysian, c is pronounced ch), garlic, ginger, vinegar, sugar and salt.