Chicken rice gets its own international day on October 10, with events by The Hood Paris 

Chicken rice, one of Singapore’s most beloved dishes that almost everyone in the city-state has an opinion on, will have a day dedicated to it. International Chicken Rice Day will debut on October 10, with diners around the world invited to tuck into the iconic dish and share the stories behind their plate.

International Chicken Rice Day is the brainchild of The Hood, a bistro that serves Southeast Asian cuisine in Paris and its cultural platform BLK65, both by Singaporean F&B entrepreneur, Pearlyn Lee.

The initiative, which has received support from the Singapore Tourism Board, is an open call for people around the world to mark the occasion by sharing a photo or video of a plate of chicken rice — whether from a hawker stall, restaurant or home kitchen.

Diners are encouraged to post a photograph or video of chicken rice on Instagram with #1010ChickenRiceDay, tag the city they are eating in, and share who introduced them to chicken rice, who cooks it for them or what the dish means to them when they are far from home.

Lee, who started The Hood in 2016, says: “The point is not to decide who makes the definitive chicken rice - “It is to show how far this apparently simple dish has travelled and how many personal histories now sit behind it.”

To mark the occasion, Singaporean heritage educator Ho Yong Min, who runs The Urbanist, a company that focuses on Singapore’s urban heritage, will helm an independently-researched programme at The Hood in Paris on October 7, followed by a chicken rice party.

The story-telling experience, No Seat, No Problem: The Story Behind Singapore’s Hainanese Chicken Rice, explores how Hainanese migrants in Singapore worked in colonial kitchens, hotels, clubs and passenger ships, and how their cooking helped shape chicken rice that is synonymous with Singapore.

Ho, who majored in urban geography at the National University of Singapore, has over a decade of experience in higher education and is an heritage enthusiast, who is known for his informative social media videos about Singapore’s urban heritage on The Urbanist.

Chicken rice is closely associated with the Hainanese community in Singapore, who were among the last major Chinese communities to settle on the island. The community, who mainly found jobs in Singapore’s food and beverage sector, and worked in British colonial households also brought with them an adaptation of chicken rice, which has roots from Wenchang chicken, a dish from Hainan Island in Southern China.

Ho says: “We don’t want people to just eat chicken rice and think it’s nice. We want them to understand why it exists at all, and what it says about how a community with no seat at the table builds one anyway.”

“As a Hainanese, I am excited to share authentic stories of the Hainanese immigrants and how its diaspora kitchen led to some of the most well known Singaporean dishes. It is beyond the dish, but stories of adaptation and resilience, forged through grit and hard work that we want to tell.”