Melaka's Chicken Rice in the Round

Melaka's famous chicken rice balls were born - so the story goes - of hardship.

About fifty years ago, when Malaysia was in its infancy, a young woman from the southern town of Muar married a Melakan fisherman twelve years her senior. The couple lived an uneventful life until, one day, the fisherman pursued a catch into Indonesian waters. He was picked up and detained for months, his boat and net impounded.

While the fisherman, named Hoe Kee, languished in an Indonesian jail his wife struggled to feed their children. She did loads of laundry by hand for a pittance, and then took to peddling Hainanese chicken rice at Melaka's main jetty. Each morning she prepared rice and chicken at home and then transported the the food, in separate containers hung from either end of a kandar (shoulder pole), to the docks.

Her customers were the men who loaded and unloaded boats. There was no such thing as official meal breaks; time was money and food had to be dished up and eaten as quickly as possible. The housewife figured that she might be able to sell more rice if it were easier to handle, and so she began rolling it into compact, bite-sized balls. She sold them for ten Malaysian sen a ball, two balls and a portion of chicken for fifty sen.

A Melakan specialty was born.

Hoe Kee eventually managed to give his jailers the slip and make his way home, but without his boat and nets. He threw himself into his wife's business, which was already humming along nicely. Three years after Hoe Kee's wife began carrying fowl and rice to the jetty on her shoulders the couple expanded beyond a kandar and two pails, to a shop on a central Melakan street that local Chinese called Ji Chang Jie - 'chicken market street'. Pretenders soon opened copycat businesses serving the same twist on Hainanese chicken rice, but Mr. and Mrs. Hoe Kee had already cornered the market. Hoe Kee - the shop took the fisherman's name - maintains its lead position to this day.

Some time ago the wife (her husband has passed on) and her children, who now handle day-to-day operations, acquired a lovely former kapitan's house on Jalan Hang Jebat. After wrangling with Melaka's bureaucracy they attained the permits required to convert the house to a restaurant and undertook a restoration of the building, which is characterized by its typically Melakan central, open-air courtyard.

Mom, now in her seventies, pops into the shop on occasion to taste and reassure herself that everything is still up to snuff. Over the years she has introduced other dishes, like Malay assam fish and Chinese soups such as lotus root and peanut and black beans boiled with chicken feet and red dates, that have become as popular as her chicken rice specialty.

The balls are no mere gimmick. The rice, cooked with chicken stock and flavored with garlic, ginger, and spring onion, is rolled by hand while it is still hot, resulting in a firm but not leaden orb of pleasantly sticky rice. Hoe Kee's steamed chicken, though cooked beyond the still-pink-at-the-bone stage, is moist and juicy, and the accompanying chili sauce distinguishes itself from other versions with its pronounced kalamansi and vinegar-stoked tartness. Instead of the blanched bean sprouts served with Ipoh's version of Hainan chicken rice, Hoe Kee serves cooked shredded cabbage studded with slices of bouncy fish sausage.

Soups vary according to the day of the week. Lotus root features a mild, light, and comforting broth and slices of toothsome root.

Four second-generation siblings - three sisters and a brother - run the Hang Jebat restaurant together, while brother number two operates another business elsewhere. Of Hoe Kee's thirteen grandchildren, one (the eldest brother's eldest son) has also opened his own chicken rice shop. Hoe Kee's youngest daughter Tan Hin Ngoh is confident that Hoe Kee will one day be taken over by the third generation.

'The grandkids are keen to help out. We know that this business will stay in our family.'

Hoe Kee, Jalan Hang Jebat (aka Jonker Walk), Melaka. Open morning to evening. Closed one day a month.

Comments

[mdl]

Ooo this posting brings tears to my eyes. It's been 10 years since I had these when a group of us went on a makan tour of Melaka. Hidup Hoe Kee

[Nate 2.0]

I heard about these chicken rice balls as being a Muar specialty but the general consensus was that they weren't worth driving all the way to Malacca for. I guess you need to find the mother restaurant that started it all.

[Karen]

Yummy! Thanks for posting this. I was trying to describe this dish to my friends here (having grown up in Malacca) but I don't think I was giving the dish adequate justice. This post is perfect for passing on... :)

[Kevin]

GREAT story, and great post. Sounds fantastic!

[Robyn]

Nate - I'm of two minds on this one. The balls are delicious ... more delicious than non-balled rice? Don't know. The soups are wonderful. Is this THE best chick rice in Malaysia? I doubt it. I wouldn't drive to Melaka ONLY for this, but if I were in Melaka I would definately devote a meal to it.

mdl - sorry for making you cry. ;-)

Karen - you're welcome. Guess we're performing a public service here.

Kevin - thanks.

[Shiewie]

The chicken rice balls are neither a Melaka nor Muar specialty.

I'm Hainanese on my father's side and rice is rolled into balls as it's easier to eat without utensils - probably something that the Hainanese on Hainan Island did as many were either farmers or fishermen and it's easier to bring rice balls to the fields/onto the boat for lunch than carting a whole load of bowls and chopsticks for each individual.

My step-gran still makes rice balls as part of the food offering for Qing Ming.

[Robyn]

Shiewie - Interesting!
I wonder if Hoe Kee was Hainanese, or if his wife is. Is this story one big fib, then? Or might we say that though the balls originated in Hainan, his wife introduced them to Melaka? And why are they so often associated with Melaka - is chicken rice commonly served this way elsewhere in Malaysia?
Also, I suspect that rice rolled into balls is not unique to Hainanese. Certainly farmers/fisherman/laborers in other parts of Asia have prepared and consumed rice this way, for its ease of transportation and consumption.
Hmmm...this calls for some investigative journalism.

[Pat Wong]

I also feel that the story is a bit far fetched. It is highly unlikely that those working as labourers in the docks could have afforded chicken.During those days chicken was a very expensive commodity served only during festivals.It was never consumed on a regular basis.Beef was infact cheaper than chicken!

[Chubbypanda]

Regardless, it's still a great story. Those darned Indonesians. Ah well. At least the world got some chicken rice balls out of it. =)

[Robyn]

Thanks Pat, for that historical perspective. But kopitiam were at that time serving chicken chops, no? Someone was eating chicken outside of special occasions...

Chubbypanda - yes, I'm happy to say the 'outing' of Hoe Kee and its back story does not diminish the deliciousness of the dish for me.

[Steamy Kitchen]

great story!

i wish i had a recipe too....

[ليبيا]

Great Point Thank you Man ... i Like Your Blog !

[ah^kam_koko']

I never realised that there was an amazing story behind the creation of the Chicken Rice Balls!
And I never imagined that I unintentionally stumbled upon this shop and had lunch at the shop run by the family of the founders!
Amazing~~

[يوتيوب اسلامي]

Great Point Thank you Man ... i Like Your Blog !

[Keira]

Yum! your picture is tempting me so bad. I think I will go to this place while I visit Malaysia next month. Thank you for sharing us.