the world of fried rice

What is Fried Rice, Different Kinds of Fried Rice, Street Food, How is Fried Rice Prepared, A Brief History, Videos

what is fried rice?

Fried rice is a dish of cooked rice that has been stir-fried in a wok or a frying pan and is usually mixed with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, seafood, or meat. It is often eaten by itself or as an accompaniment to another dish.

Fried rice is a popular component of East Asian, Southeast Asian and certain South Asian cuisines, as well as a staple national dish of Indonesia. As a homemade dish, fried rice is typically made with ingredients left over from other dishes, leading to countless variations. Fried rice first developed during the Sui Dynasty in China.

what are some different kinds of fried rice?

Many varieties of fried rice have their own specific list of ingredients. In China, common varieties include Yangzhou fried rice and Hokkien fried rice. Japanese chāhan is considered a Japanese Chinese dish, having derived from Chinese fried rice dishes. In Southeast Asia, similarly constructed Indonesian, Malaysian, and Singaporean nasi goreng and Thai khao phat are popular dishes. In the West, most restaurants catering to vegetarians have invented their own varieties of fried rice, including egg fried rice.

Fried rice is also seen on the menus of American restaurants offering cuisines with no native tradition of the dish. Additionally, the cuisine of some Latin American countries includes variations on fried rice, including Ecuadorian chaulafan, Peruvian arroz chaufa, Cuban arroz frito, and Puerto Rican arroz mamposteao.

is fried rice a street food?

Fried rice is a common street food in Asia. In some Asian countries, small restaurants, street vendors and traveling hawkers specialize in serving fried rice. In Indonesian cities it is common to find fried rice street hawkers moving through the streets with their food cart and stationing it in busy streets or residential areas. Many Southeast Asian street food stands offer fried rice with a selection of optional garnishes and side dishes.

how is fried rice prepared?

Cooked rice is the primary ingredient, with myriad additional ingredients, such as vegetables, eggs, meat (chicken, beef, pork, lamb, mutton), preserved meat (bacon, ham, sausage), seafood (fish, shrimp, crab), mushrooms, among others. Aromatics such as onions, shallots, scallions, leeks, and garlic are often added for extra flavor. Various cooking oils, such as vegetable oil, sesame oil, clarified butter, or lard can be used to grease the wok or frying pan to prevent sticking, as well as for flavor. Fried rice dishes can be seasoned with salt, different types of soy sauce, oyster sauce,teriyaki sauce and many other sauces and spices. Popular garnishes include chopped scallions, sliced chili, fried shallots, sprigs of parsley or coriander leaves, toasted sesame seeds, seaweed flakes (gim or nori), sliced cucumber, tomato, lime, or pickled vegetables.

a brief history of fried rice

Fried rice originated in Yangzhou in the eastern Jiangsu province of China and was a favorite of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. During that period, peasants also took to the dish as a way of avoiding food waste and using leftovers amid economic inequality. Utilizing day-old rice, eggs, and vegetables on hand, the 6th century version is not different from what is seen today.

the jiangsu province

Situated between the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal, it’s a region known for its technique-driven and imperial-style Chinese cooking due to the frequency of lavish meals that accompanied the visits of ancient emperors, dignitaries and officials in the pivotal port between the north and south that acted as a political and economic center propped up by its salt trade.

Seen now as more of a modernized ancient city than a portal into China’s past, Yangzhou became a hub for water transportation and the salt trade by the end of the 3rd century. That brought forth foreign chefs and their distinctive cooking styles which became part of Yangzhou food culture—a mix of flavors and ingredients focused on adaptability around fresh ingredients that represented the larger cornerstones of its cuisine.

emperor yang

During the Sui Dynasty, fried rice is said to have been ushered in by Emperor Yang who loved the dish. It was then adopted by peasants and among the masses in the 6th century when China had become unified. It was a culinary solution to using up leftovers and avoiding waste amid economic inequality after nearly four centuries of division.

And so, the spirit of fried rice was born out of what most immigrants do and have always done when faced with the slow fade of hope in the lived reality of settling in a new land: Turn the scraps of what they have into something notable enough to puncture through plastic of being unseen. The scraps in this case are day-old rice, eggs, scallions, and a throw of vegetables and proteins. Sometimes oyster sauce, or soy sauce, or more classic with just salt. Endless variations build on this from the simple—sesame oil, Shaoxing wine, garlic—to the luxury of XO sauce or cloud of fragrance basket-steamed inside a blanket of lotus leaves.

fried rice in the 20th century

Fried rice made its way to the U.S. in the 20th century around the popularization of chop suey and post-Chinese immigration to build the Transatlantic Railroad.

In a period of Chinese exclusion and violence aimed at immigrants, Americans still liked the food. “Chinese American food was really born out of this attempt to appeal to American mouths and really an attempt to survive in a country that didn’t have a use for them,” says Kenny Ng, Good Food contributor and educator.

He makes correlations between its rise in popularity in both countries.

According to TIME, Chinese restaurants proliferated at this time, grew to be quite popular, and offered incredibly delicious food. They served dishes that we now associate with American Chinese cuisine, such as chop suey, which translates to "odds & ends." Indeed, chop suey is yet another dish made from leftovers that has conquered the hearts and palates of Americans!

By the time Yangzhou (or Yangchow, as it’s often seen on menus) fried rice was popularized in the U.S. in the 20th century, Chinese food and the immigrants who came to this country and cooked it bent towards American palates as a means to get by in the kitchens where their work and the dreams they came with were quarantined.

Fried rice was embraced in the cage of cheap comfort food, colonized under the fear of MSG that still curbs a perception of Chinese food as synonymous with takeout. But the commodified story of boxed-up fried rice as a background component to a combo meal betrays the depth in variety carried on the tongues of tradition for centuries.

fried rice as a traditional banquet food

In large banquet dinners during celebrations like weddings, Chinese New Year, milestone birthdays and post-funeral feasts in Chinese families, fried rice is one of the last courses to come out alongside a platter of noodles, often served in progression to invoke longevity and the endurance that a long life requires. In function, they are the sweeping final bites to ensure that family and friends do not leave needing anything more in the moment, a failsafe of nourishment in the maze of what we cannot control in life beyond the present.

Banquet fried rice is usually a version with dried scallops, gai lan stems, sometimes shrimp and just egg whites for a more elegant appearance. The lore goes that this style originated in the 1980s by a Hong Kong billionaire who asked his chef to prepare a fried rice with less oil and less salt on doctor’s orders, kicking off a Cantonese dining trend more in line with what was viewed as healthy at the time.

videos on fried rice

Fried Rice | Basics with Babish

Fried rice is incredibly easy to make and can be tweaked a thousand different ways to clean out your fridge or assuage the picky eater in your life.

Chinese street food-the most authentic Egg fried rice

FRIED RICE FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Japan, Thailand, Korea, Indonesia

The Journey of Rice EP1 The Seed of Civilization

Rice is a worldwide foodstuff that has played a fundamental role in shaping human civilization. But what’s the real story of rice? What inspired people to abandon their nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles and dedicate their lives to the cultivation of this grain? In Episode 1, we trace the journey of rice to China's Yangtze River region and further south, the heartlands of prehistoric rice cultivation, to reveal the epic human story behind this seemingly simple grain.

Why is rice so popular? - Carolyn Beans

Rice contributes over 20% of the calories consumed by humans each year. Korean bibimbap, Nigerian jollof, Indian biryani, Spanish paella, and countless other culinary masterpieces all begin with rice. So how did this humble grain end up in so many cuisines? Carolyn Beans investigates the global expansion of this beloved crop and the unintended consequences of its popularity.

The Untold Truth Of Fried Rice

Fried rice is such a common staple of restaurant menus and such an easy meal to make at home that the thought of where and when it originated or how it came to be may never cross your mind. But the history of American fried rice is fascinating, from its ancient Chinese origins to its popularity among Gold Rush immigrants to the U.S. in the 1800s.

in conclusion

In many ways, fried rice is more of a method than a recipe. It can be regional or as specific as a household whose main approach flows from utilizing whatever you have to move things forward with the incremental possibilities in a bowl of rice.

“Fried rice is always a wonderful story of how different flavors and different cultures and different cooking styles come together,” says chef Lucas Sin of Junzi Kitchen in New York City. “Because a lot of the way foodways works is: When people move from country to country or from region to region, they bring with them their ideas of how to cook and their techniques when they aren't able to bring their ingredients.”

Food reveals our history in clues of a country that often forgets it. Chinese immigrants took to operating and cooking in restaurants when other jobs were not available to them, in the years they were stranded after building the transcontinental railroad, forced to adapt the ingredients they couldn’t come with to appeal to American mouths. To survive in an economy that excluded them, in a country that no longer needed them, versions of fast food fried rice were served in a barter to get by.

Page updated

Report abuse