A Bird in the Palms
Hainan Province, an island in China's tropical far south, is synonymous with poultry. Curiously, though, its namesake dish – Hainan chicken rice – is far more pervasive in the Chinese diaspora overseas than on the rocky, palm-fringed shores of the land that gave it its name. Singaporean businesspeople, Thai night shift workers and Malaysian hedge fund managers chow down on this winning combination of tender parboiled capon, garlic and ginger dips and a mound of rice cooked in the bird's own rich broth, a testament to generations of migration from China's south.
On Hainan itself, and across China, another chicken dish is far more highly praised. Originating from Wenchang, hometown of the Soong sisters (Ai-ling, Ching-ling and Mei-ling), the latter two the wives of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek respectively, and unimaginatively named Wenchang chicken, this tropical treat is best experienced in the sweltering afternoon heat on a bamboo terrace.
The preparation of Wenchang chicken begins with the rearing of a particular breed of poultry unique to the region. With larger reserves of fat and less muscle mass than typical Chinese broilers, the birds are fed on a mash of coconut, which imbues a creamy sweetness to the meat and extra bounce to the collagen-rich skin.
The dish itself involves flash-boiling the bird then leaving it to sit in its broth for over an hour, which allows the meat to continue to cook and the skin to separate without drying it out. The entire animal is then carved and served over fluffy rice in its own gravy. Accompaniments are simple – a dip of soy sauce, garlic and scallion. The finishing touch is the chicken's own blood pressed into sausage and thinly sliced over the final dish.
As with much Hainan cuisine, high-quality, simply cooked ingredients truly sing with little embellishment needed. The silken skin, rumored to keep one's complexion youthful, has a delightful gelatinous bounce. The fat beneath is rich, buttery and carries the delicate fragrance of fresh coconut flesh. The meat has a slightly grainy, fibrous texture that soaks up sauces perfectly to provide a perfect balance to the creamy fat.
If one needs a bit of extra zing to send this symphony of flavor over the edge, then reach for the Hainanese yellow lantern pepper sauce – a staple of the island. These peppers are delicate and literally tear-jerkingly fiery, guaranteed to knock back even the most hardened aficionado of peppery spice. But a dab stirred into a dipping sauce, a bowl of rice or served with dumplings is transcendentally good – despite the searing heat, once you sample the salty, fresh and almost citrusy power, you will keep eating despite the beads of sweat that will sting your eyes.
While both Wenchang chicken and yellow lantern pepper sauce are now available throughout China, they are best sampled homemade on their home turf in Wenchang city (officially known as Wencheng), now equally famous as being China's answer to Cape Kennedy – the country's newest spacecraft launch sites are visible from most vantage points.
It's only fitting that the local cuisine should be out of this world.