I've wanted to eat at Wee Nam Kee for such a long time. I love chicken. I love chicken so much that if I could eat only one thing for the rest of my life, chicken would be it. I don't care if Anthony Bourdain thinks chicken is boring (In his book "Kitchen Confidential", Bourdain wrote that chicken is for people who didn't know what to order. Judging by my appetite, believe me when I say, I know what to order.) Fried chicken will probably shorten "the rest of my life" so I guess it's best if I eat Hainanese chicken all the time instead. I really love it, anyway.
My mother likes telling people that once, on a family trip to Hong Kong, I only ate Hainanese chicken rice. I know it probably sounds blasphemous (and quite unadventurous) since there's so much good food in Hong Kong but I couldn't care less. I enjoyed every meal. Given a choice, I would bring home boxes of Hainanese chicken meal sets rather than milk and egg tarts (which is quite something since I also love milk and egg tarts, the former just a little bit more than the latter. It's quite sad that I can't find milk tarts here in Manila but that sadness must be saved for another day.)
My mother likes telling people that once, on a family trip to Hong Kong, I only ate Hainanese chicken rice. I know it probably sounds blasphemous (and quite unadventurous) since there's so much good food in Hong Kong but I couldn't care less. I enjoyed every meal. Given a choice, I would bring home boxes of Hainanese chicken meal sets rather than milk and egg tarts (which is quite something since I also love milk and egg tarts, the former just a little bit more than the latter. It's quite sad that I can't find milk tarts here in Manila but that sadness must be saved for another day.)
Wee Nam Kee in Manila is located at the Ayala Triangle Gardens. It's a lot posher than most of its Asian counterparts since it's an air-conditioned facility with a really nice oriental design. While the best Hainanese chicken rice meals I've had are from hot hawker stalls or hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants in old Manila, I will not say no to air-conditioning. I don't think I ever will. Except for the incredibly cramped tables on busy hours, Wee Nam Kee wins design-wise. They also have these lighting fixtures made out of bird cages, which I found disturbing since their selling point is chicken. It was like sending the other hens a message. Hide yo chicks, lah!
As for food, you can order their specialty chicken either steamed or roasted, and you can order it both ways (what we did) as well. For 168 pesos, you can have the personal set which has an order of chicken, the chicken rice, and a bowl of soup.
As for food, you can order their specialty chicken either steamed or roasted, and you can order it both ways (what we did) as well. For 168 pesos, you can have the personal set which has an order of chicken, the chicken rice, and a bowl of soup.
My only problem was the fresh ginger sauce. I found it a little dry. It was, literally, a jar of ground ginger and that made me a bit sad (my ability to feel so much for food might be annoying you but my heart did sink a bit).
Fresh ground ginger will have a milder flavor but it has more bite than the traditional ginger sauce. This is preferred by some people (mostly dieters who will probably order their chicken steamed without rice, the poor things) but I think the traditional ginger sauce tastes better with the chicken. The traditional ginger sauce has chopped (minced?) pieces of scallions and is, literally, swimming in peanut oil (or sesame oil). I usually eat my chicken with just the ginger sauce but since these two things were not in Wee Nam Kee's version, I ate my chicken with ginger and the sweet soy sauce instead. It looked like this:
Fresh ground ginger will have a milder flavor but it has more bite than the traditional ginger sauce. This is preferred by some people (mostly dieters who will probably order their chicken steamed without rice, the poor things) but I think the traditional ginger sauce tastes better with the chicken. The traditional ginger sauce has chopped (minced?) pieces of scallions and is, literally, swimming in peanut oil (or sesame oil). I usually eat my chicken with just the ginger sauce but since these two things were not in Wee Nam Kee's version, I ate my chicken with ginger and the sweet soy sauce instead. It looked like this:
I have to say that sweet soy sauce made my meal better! Also, the rice was quite good (I know I'm not supposed to have lots and I didn't!) It was fluffy and flavorful! Also, the rice reminded me of the Craig Thompson graphic novel, Goodbye, Chunky Rice! Exclamation points! I cannot lay off them!
There was also an order of Roast Pork on the table. It's like lechon kawali, only it's a bit dry. I did regret not getting the BBQ Pork. This was still good though! It came with a small portion of pickled vegetables (carrot sticks, string beans and jicama) and a thick, dark sauce that tasted a lot like hoisin. Perhaps it was. I love hoisin, especially on Peking duck and the crispy skin of a suckling pig. With leeks. Wrapped in thin pancakes. (!!!) Moving on...
Sauce biases aside, I really liked dining at Wee Nam Kee. It was a very satisfying lunch. There were other items on the menu that I'd like to try next time like the cereal prawns, baby kai lan (expensive though, for a vegetable order), and the iced barley drink. I'm okay with eating at Wee Nam Kee again but I just know that their chicken is not something I'd constantly crave for. The search for Manila's best Hainanese Chicken is still on and that makes me extremely happy because think of all the taste tests I have to do! Hah! Challenge accepted!
Wee Nam Kee
Restaurants at the Ayala Triangle Gardens,
Ayala Ave., Paseo de Roxas
Makati City
(They serve quite a crowd at lunch and dinner so you better come early!)
