Mikel a.k.a Splashmilk was in Malacca and we went out for a sight seeing walkabout. For a detailed story, do read Mikel’s Hey Ho Melaka!, Hey Ho Melaka : Food You! and Hey Ho Melaka : Walls of Art Crime.

Every weekend and any public holidays, Malacca town is seriously jam packed because of the out station’s and Singaporeans’ cars flocking to the same restaurants and tourist attraction spots using the same road like every other road users, causing traffic jam and long queues at every possible places.

And one of the places is none other than the Hoe Kee Chicken Rice Ball shop, which is located at the far end of Jonker Street. I guess there’s no need introduction and elaboration on the origin of chicken rice ball and one of the pioneers, Hoe Kee.

This delicacy and restaurant have been featured by countless food magazines, food shows, blogs, newspapers and every other print media and I don’t think they need to be introduced here again. If you don’t know what is it, by all means, please go flush yourself at your house’s toilet bowl. This shop has been featured by countless magazines and TV shows

Every weekend, the shop is packed to the brim with people from all over Malaysia, Singapore, foreign countries. There are so many people waiting outside the shop that it never fail to amaze me. The queue sometimes can go up to three to four shop lots and I even heard some of them had to wait for more than two hours just to eat chicken rice. You can see this phenomena during weekends while as weekdays are slightly better.

Chicken rice ball is basically just chicken rice cooked slightly longer and then molded into a ping pong ball size. It has the same taste just like the normal chicken rice except its’ texture is more slimy. They say five rice balls are equivalent to a bowl of rice. Hence, although they are about the same amount, I need to eat three times more of rice balls compared to two plates of rice, that’s about 15 or more rice balls before I start to feel like I have eaten two plates of rice. Yet, they have the same price! Kind of cheating customers, isn’t it?

After all these years, I still don’t understand why people are so easily fascinated by these balls. Are you guys and girls worshiping the balls?

Hainanese never cook their chicken to 100% cooked but somewhere around 90% cooked, so that the raw meat and blood tastes will retain in the meat itself. Hence, if you have stomachache, like a few of my friends did, fear not, it’s not because the chicken rice is dirty but rather your stomach isn’t able to take it. Ask Juliana, she had a bad stomach ache after eating it for the first time.

Did I mention that the chicken is very oily too due to the seasonings they put before the chicken is served? If they cook the chicken properly and just nicely, the meat will be very tender and you don’t have to chew for ages just to swallow it.

Of course, there are other side dishes like cabbage, asam pedas fish and black bean soup to go along with your chicken rice, making it a rather complete wholesome meal for your family and yourself. Their black bean soup is quite tasty actually, natural sweetness from the red dates and porks. And who can forget the not spicy at all and sourish chili sauce?

Of course, there’s another option which is just directly opposite Hoe Kee, the Chung Wah Kopitiam. Chung Wah Kopitiam is as famous as Hoe Kee and it was rated as the best chicken rice shop by Hitz.FM. Many people argued is it Hoe Kee or Chung Wah that serves the best chicken rice. To me, chicken rice ball is no longer a secret recipe and anyone can cook as good as them after numerous trial and error. It all boils down to personal preference, that’s it. Read more about Chung Wah’s chicken rice balls at Amazing Melaka.

Well, after staying in Malacca for five years and blogging for two years, I, finally, blogged about the chicken rice balls. And no, I don’t visit the shop unless I have friends not from Malacca are here. I still think it is a rip off as its not cheap eating a meal there due to its tourist attraction status.

You guys do worship the balls, don’t you?