Variety is the spice of life

"The excellence of this dish lies in the fact that you hear 'chicken' in its name, but you don't see any in the bowl-yet you still taste chicken," Xie explains. "It's a dish that tests a chef's skills."

The key step to giving the chicken the texture of tofu is to smash the chicken breast with the back of a knife blade until all the muscles in the meat break down. Then the chicken is mashed and mixed with egg white and soy flour using specific proportions.

"If the mixture is too thick, it won't turn fluffy when it's boiled in the next step, and if the mixture is too thin, it won't become cloudy and will loosen," he says.

Last but not least, the final step is to pour the mixture into the water and keep the water bubbling below 100 C for an hour and a half until it becomes fluffy and floats up to the surface.