Hainanese Chicken Chop - Reem Island Cafe, Abu Dhabi

I like Reem Island cafe ... a lot! It provides a little taste of Malaysia when we are so far away from home ... and it had been some years since I last had one of my FAVOURITE dishes, Hainanese Chicken Chop.

Located: Reem Island, Abu Dhabi
More specifically: Tamouh site office
Tel: +971 2 650 1996
GPS:
N24 29' 30.4"
E054 24' 04.4"

Thursday is ... Hainanese Chicken Chop day at Reem Island Cafe!

The cafe serves specials each and every day - Monday is Kuay Teow T'ng day, and on other days there are Malaysian favourites such as ... Chicken Rice, Roast Duck, Curry Mee etc as well. On most days you would find chap fan, economy noodles for breakfast, kaya toast, as well as Wan Tan Mee and Mee Jawa, and Yong Tau Foo is served rather regularly as well. One can enjoy a full dinner of ala-carte dishes each evening as well!

But Thursday is my favourite .. Hainanese Chicken Chop Day!

There's a sucullent and generous portion of breaded and deep fried chicken, some mixed veges and shoe-string fries, and a couple of slices of tomatoes and cucumber ... all for the princely sum of 15 AED or RM$13. Bliss in the desert!

On another occassion .. I tried it with rice instead of chips, for an extra 3 AED or RM$2, delicious as well!

There's much local history to this dish -

No you won't get this on Hainan Island, in fact you won't get it outside of Malaysia and Singapore as this is a British colonial legacy shared by both our countries. A dish created by the Hainanese who worked for English households using tomato ketchup, worcester sauce, potato chips and peas. It is still served at most remaining Hainanese owned coffee shops in Malaysia and Singapore these days.

Yes ... I am a huge fan of this dish. Malaysia serves some excellent chicken chops including those at Tanjung Malim (Yik Mun v E&L springs to mind!), or KL's legendary Coliseum, SS2's famous Yippee Cup or perhaps the lesser known but equally excellent 99 Steak and Chops in TTDI.

BUT ... its next to impossible to beat the home-cooked variant :-) Prepared with much love!