And the difference is...?

After waking up late (mmm.. sleep in) on Sunday morning, went with Winsie to Bishan to visit the library and have lunch.

I love hawker centre lunching for the huge variety, the bustle of the street vendors, and the CHEAP prices. 24 hr opening times?! Much SE Asia LOVE <3 

Not yet filling up for lunch, but getting there! I love how there are staff for the hawker centre just cleaning up, walking around, serving drinks. It makes the whole process so much more streamlined and pleasant. And for street stall centres, they are so clean!!

Winsie's favourite chicken rice stall. She came to Bishan to study in the library every day, just so she could eat the chicken rice for lunch! The original stall is on Bugis St - apparently very famous!

They even have their own branded plastic bags for all the takeaway. While queueing we saw a couple of guys from the lion dance team that was practicing across the street come in to buy lunch for the whole team - about 15 packages of chicken rice!!?

Chili packaged in tiny plastic bags for takeaway.

The chef - expertly chopping chicken nonstop and piling on to plates.

And here's the final product! Sorry for the discolouration in the pictures - there was a green plastic roof that was turning everything green!

So how was it? Well... all I can do is compare it to the one I ate previously. The rice was a little more flavoursome than the last, and a little drier - perhaps a less oily mouthfeel?

The chicken was also better - served a little cooler and it was more slippery, soft and tender. I love this kind of steamed chicken - though the 'chicken flavour' is quite mild, it is a great textural experience.

However, the cucumber was very very bitter - almost ruined the whole experience!

The chili! As I've said, Mark is a connoisseur of chicken rice chili - when I showed him the picture of this one he commented "oh.. so so la. see it is too much of a paste - not the grinded up texture". Hopefully I'll be able to tell a good one when I see it! Chicken rice is serious business guys!!!