Akar Nusa
Seven in the morning at a coffee shop. A man pulls a pale chicken from an iced bath and hangs it to dry. Behind him a rice cooker steams with ginger, garlic and pandan.
The story
Hainanese chicken rice descends from Wenchang chicken rice, a dish of Hainan island in southern China. Hainanese migrants carried it across Southeast Asia, where it is now a staple, especially in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Many Hainanese left their island towards the turn of the 20th century. In Southeast Asia they worked as cooks, restaurateurs and coffee shop owners. In the late 19th century migration pattern of Chinese Malaysians, the Hainanese were known as chefs and waiters in kopi tiam and restaurants.
The coffee shop (kopitiam) is the other half of the story. The word joins Malay kopi (coffee) and Hokkien tiam (shop). In Malaysia, owners are generally from the Foochow and Hainanese groups, and many began their businesses in the British period. Typical fare is kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs, with coffee. In Ipoh, white coffee is made from beans roasted with palm-oil margarine and less sugar, which gives it its colour.
How is the chicken made? It is poached at a low heat, dipped in ice and hung to dry. The rice is cooked in the stock with ginger, garlic and pandan leaves. It is served with chilli sauce, dark soy sauce, ginger and cucumber. As one writer puts it, the most important part is the rice, not the chicken.
In Malacca and Muar the rice is shaped into balls, known as chicken rice balls.
Who invented the dish? Malaysia and Singapore both claim it, and the argument is lively. We do not take a side. The dish belongs to the Hainanese who carried it, and to the many cooks who changed it.
In Singapore, the dish stayed a special-occasion meal in Hainanese homes until the 1940s. Wang Yiyuan is said to have sold chicken rice balls as a hawker in the 1920s, and a restaurant called Swee Kee made the dish popular in the 1950s. Malaysian cooks have their own versions and their own pride in them.
Where you can still see it today
- Chicken rice shops across Malaysia, in coffee shops and restaurants.
- Chicken rice balls in Malacca and Muar.
- Ipoh white coffee, a local coffee shop speciality.
- Hainanese assembly halls in Johor Bahru and Malacca.
What DNA can tell, and what it cannot
A region estimate may point a Malaysian we have tested toward southern China, which includes the Hainan island. It cannot say whether your family came from Hainan or ate chicken rice at home. A recipe moves with people and with trade, and many cooks, from many backgrounds, now make it.
DNA does not decide race, religion or any legal status.
