I am a sucker for nostalgia, and so I have always wanted to try the newspaper Hainanese curry rice at The Hainan Story. Not only they are creative by serving the curry rice on a piece of “newspaper”, I have also noticed that the curry rice here has been highly raved.

The first time I had it delivered, I wasn’t too impressed as the rice came across mushy and sticky although I must say I really enjoyed the tender chicken drumstick. However, dining in this time made the experience entirely different. What stayed the same was the huge portion, the heavenly four vegetables and the long bean fried omelette which we didn’t know that we could actually choose. But what was different was that the set was also served with a prawn cracker, sambal tempeh and the sambal belacan that left me burning. And although the slab of braised pork belly was pretty fat, I enjoyed the melt-in-mouth tenderness while being drenched with a gravy filled with spices. This was, in fact, not conflicting to the hainanese curry which was heavily aromatic in the curry rempah. I appreciate the gesture of serving the curry separately so that the rice wouldn’t be damp and we could taste both the curry and the braised pork separately before mixing them all together.