Ji Hui Lai Nasi Kerabu (Woodleigh Village Hawker Centre)

The opening of Woodleigh Village Hawker Centre does seem to have brought upon a good number of fairly interesting hawker stalls that are new to the local F&B scene and have found home in the hawker centre. One of such stalls will be 鸡会来 Nasi Kerabu; this stall is located at the end of the hawker centre that is nearer towards Woodleigh Bus Interchange which is in turn connected to The Woodleigh Mall and Woodleigh Residences, as well as Woodleigh MRT Station on the North-East Line. 鸡会来 Nasi Kerabu is a stall that is fairly easy to spot with its blue signage that seems to feature Peranakan-style motifs in the background; the signboard also features its logo where a rooster can be found sitting within a bowl as well. 鸡会来 Nasi Kerabu describes itself as a stall that serves up fusion-style Nasi Kerabu; its menu comprises of Nasi Kerabu offerings that comes with either grilled chicken, fried chicken or curry chicken to go along — for those whom wish to opt for something else apart from Nasi Kerabu, one can also go for the Butter Rice options as well.

Since the signature item at 鸡会来 Nasi Kerabu would be their blue pea rice, we went for exactly that — the Blue Pea Rice with Curry Chicken was the item we eventually went trot considering how we were drawn by the fragrance of the curry whilst standing in front of the stall. 鸡会来 Nasi Kerabu really meant it when they had introduced their offerings as being fusion fare, there seems to be a very evident fusion of Peranakan-style cuisine with a slight Malay / Indonesian and Indian influence in the Blue Pea Rice with Curry Chicken — the stall does have an illustration depicting the various elements that comes with their dishes which includes salad greens, shredded coconut, fish cracker, blue pea rice and signature sambal chili; it also mentions that the best way to consume the dish is to “mix, eat and savour”. Digging into the blue pea rice that comes topped with salad greens above it, the mix of the condiments that came with the salad greens provides the rice with a slight note of herbs and spices that is akin to Nasi Ulam (i.e. Malay herb rice salad); mixing all of the salad greens with the blue pea rice and the toasted desiccated coconut together will further add on to the fragrance of the rice which gives it a slightly zippy note that makes it rather easy to eat — something which we found ourselves delightfully mopping it up even without the curry chicken. The curry chicken comes in the portion of an entire chicken leg; fully drenched in curry gravy. The curry gravy is sufficiently rich and thick, carrying quite a good hint of curry spices that is balanced with the use of coconut milk without being too spicy — the level of spiciness for the curry chicken being pretty manageable even for those whom have slightly lower than moderate tolerance to spiciness in general. The chicken meat does come off the bones very easily, while the chunks of potatoes also carried a soft bite as well.

Fish crackers were crisp as they should be; delivered a good crunch with a deep savouriness — this is despite us dropping by the stall during the early evenings on the weekend for dinner. The signature sambal chili is one that resembles that of Indonesian-style sambal — this does come with a slight savouriness but also with an intense kick of spiciness that tickles the tastebuds; one that would still be spicy even for those whom have moderate tolerance to spiciness in general. Overall, 鸡会来 Nasi Kerabu does seem to be a pretty earnest establishment that delivers on what it promises its patrons pretty well. One can definitely see the various fusion elements involved with the dish coming with evident Malay, Indonesian, Peranakan, Chinese and Indian influences; pretty much reflective of Singapore’s multi-cultural society in one dish — the final product also being one where that has been a lot of thought and effort placed in to serve patrons with their very best with good execution and quite a fair bit of attention to detail. With its offerings priced from $7.80 to $8.30, the prices of its dishes may seem a little high for that of a stall situated within a hawker centre setting; that being said, the quality of the food does resonate well with the price — a stall worth checking out just to see what they have to offer.