Chicken Village

Today I want to show you a unique dish that I had found when I am visiting Jakarta. It is Beggar Chicken.

FYI, Beggar chicken is a famous dish from Changshu - China. This dish contains of chicken wrapped in lotus leaves and covered with a clay. After covered with clay, they will bake it with hot coals until the clay is hardened. Nowadays, beggar chicken is considered a staple of Chinese Haute cuisine.

Beggar Chicken IDR186.000

Curious why do they named it Beggar Chicken? Some says there is a story behind Beggar Chicken. Long time ago, there was one poor beggar who found wild chicken and he planned to eat it without telling anybody. So he built a fire, put the chicken into the hot coals and covered the chicken with the mud. In this condition, the chicken fragrance would trapped in the mud, so no one would know about the chicken. But, a luck was not on the poor beggar when he started to eat the chicken.  One noble traveler smelled the chicken and the beggar was kind enough to share the chicken with him. The chicken was so delicious so the traveler keen to learn from the beggar on how to make this chicken. Eventually this cooking method made it all the way into the Imperial Court. Because of that, they named this chicken dish 'Beggar Chicken'.

We eat this Beggar Chicken at Chicken Village restaurant. Because it takes a long time to make this dish, you may only able to order Beggar Chicken after lunch hour and they only have limited Beggar Chicken quantity every day.

The chicken is very tender and fragrant. The fragrant is coming from the Chinese herbal ingredient that they put into the chicken. This Beggar Chicken is incredibly delicious indeed.

The presentation of the way that they serve Beggar Chicken in Chicken village restaurant is so creative. They bring a Chicken shape clay and wood hammer. After that, the waitress starts to hit the clay with a wood hammer. After it cracks, you can see the chicken wrapped in 2 wrapper: aluminum foil and lotus leaves. Below are some of the pictures and video on how they serve the Beggar Chicken.  

 

 

 

 

Other than Beggar Chicken, we also order Hainan Rice and Fried Yam filled with Chicken and Mushroom.

 

Hainan Rice IDR7.800

 

Fried Yam filled with Chicken and Mushroom

Hainan rice and Fried Yam filled with Chicken and Mushroom are also not bad.

Overall we were enjoying having dinner at Chicken Village restaurant. Be sure to try their Beggar Chicken if you visit this restaurant.

Will I go there again? Yes

 

Details

Name: Chicken Village

Address: Mall Kelapa Gading 1 Lt. Dasar Unit G # 197,  Bulevar Kelapa Gading Blok M , Kelapa Gading - Jakarta Utara - Indonesia