Today, I revisited the Food Place food court, located at Pavilion Mall. The food court is located beside the Oriental Kopi Restaurant.
This time, I ordered Sesame Chicken Wantan mee from the Chong Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice stall, which costs RM13.00 per bowl.
The plate features springy Cantonese-style egg noodles dressed in a savoury dark soy sauce base, giving them a glossy texture and rich umami flavour. On top are slices of Sesame Chicken. A portion of blanched bok choy is added for freshness and balance. A bowl of soup accompanies the dish.
Sesame chicken (and its close cousin honey chicken) is not a traditional Chinese dish but rather a creation of Chinese-American and Chinese-Malaysian restaurants that adapted Cantonese cooking techniques for local tastes.
In southern China, dishes like sweet-and-sour pork or orange chicken already used the frying + sweet glaze method. When Chinese immigrants brought these techniques abroad, they adapted to local ingredients and preferences for sweeter flavours.
Sesame chicken became especially popular in Chinese-American restaurants in the 1970s–1980s, alongside dishes like General Tso’s chicken and orange chicken. The sesame seeds and honey were added to make it distinct from earlier sweet-and-sour variations.
The dish was adapted to local tastes and ingredients. While the original Hong Kong-style is often served in a light broth with prawn wontons, the Malaysian/Singaporean version popularised the "dry" style (tossed in dark soy and sesame oil) and added Char Siew (BBQ pork) as a standard topping.In modern Southeast Asian hawker culture, it is common for stalls to offer a variety of popular dishes beyond their specialty. A chicken rice stall (Hainanese tradition) often expands its menu to include other noodle dishes (like the Cantonese-based Wantan Mee) to appeal to more customers. The "Sesame Chicken" is likely an adaptation of the traditional pork Char Siew topping, either to offer a unique selling point, cater to those who prefer chicken, or to appeal to a wider non-pork-eating demographic, all while fitting the stall's main chicken-focused expertise.
In essence, the Sesame Chicken Wantan Mee is a reflection of the multicultural melting pot of Southeast Asian street food, fusing Cantonese noodle tradition with a Hainanese-owned stall's creative, chicken-based spin.
