Traditional Rui Ji Chicken Rice & Curry Chicken Noodle in Toa Payoh

When Swee Kee Chicken Rice closed down in 1997 for renovations, but never reopened again, it was a blow to many. Its pre-Y2K closure means many of us have never gotten to try it, until now—their recipe given a fresh lease on life at Traditional Rui Ji Chicken Rice & Curry Chicken Noodle in Toa Payoh, which just opened to long queues some weeks ago.

Image credit: National Archives of Singapore

If Swee Kee Chicken Rice sounds familiar to you, that’s probably thanks to the emergence of similarly named, but unrelated eateries, that have popped up over the years. The one and only original Swee Kee was founded in 1949 by Mr Moh Lee Twee on Middle Road, and is credited with popularising Hainanese chicken rice both locally and regionally.

The famous chicken rice stall, which even the sage Violet Oon said was the best of the ’50s and ’60s, would have been 74 years old today.

Image credit: Traditional Rui Ji Chicken Rice & Curry Chicken Noodle

Today, Traditional Rui Ji Chicken Rice & Curry Chicken Noodle is said to be run by distant family members of Mr Moh, one of w...