Fried rice - too simple to make

I grew up with fried rice, it's part of our culture. Everywhere you go you see fried rice, every family eats fried rice. It has the same kind of position in the food culture as sandwiches in Western countries.

Fried rice is often actually made from leftover ingredients. It's a bit similar to Italian pizza the way Italian families sometimes make it, where they just quickly throw some leftover ingredients on the dough and put it in the oven. In the same way, fried rice is a popular lunch-box food for kids to take to school and parents to take to work. Mothers stir fry those leftovers with rice, and the meal is done in two minutes.

When I was traveling in South East Asia, I found that fried rice is the most popular dish with Western travelers. Wherever you go, fried rice is always on the menu – from the top five star hotels to the small vendors. And the price can vary from $1 to $10 or more.

The fried rice served in the five star hotels is made with more expensive ingredients and served on china, in a nice way. But the fried rice from the street market vendors uses simple ingredients and is scooped onto plastic plates.

The famous Chinese restaurant chain from Taiwan, Din Tai Fung, serves very delicious fried rice. But if you look at your plate, there is only rice, egg, shrimps and few green onions there. So how can something that appears so simple be so popular?

The reason fried rice is so popular is simply that it's always guaranteed to be tasty. And it doesn't matter whether you order it from a luxury hotel or a street restaurant, the secret of fried rice doesn't have so much to do with expensive ingredients or how experienced the chef is.

How to make fried rice

You must be curious about how exactly to make this simple and delicious dish. This is how I cook fried rice.

1. Heat the wok or frying pan with some oil. Stir in some chopped greens and mushrooms. (At this stage, you can throw in some meat or shrimps.)
2. When the ingredients in the wok are cooked, stir in a broken egg and keep stirring the egg.
3. When the egg is hardened, put in the boiled or steamed rice and keep stirring. (At this stage, turn up the heat to brown the rice. And burn the rice a little bit by pressing it down onto the hot wok)
4. Flavor the fried rice with salt and pepper.

There are some suggestions for your fried rice.
Don't use cooked rice with too much moisture. Thai jasmine rice is good for the texture and flavor.
Don't use too much soy sauce, it will make the dish too clumpy.
Don't use too many ingredients apart from rice; the proportion of the other ingredients to the rice is important. Too much will make the fried rice clump together and less pleasant to eat.