I'm having some
fried rice right now. It tastes very good.
Fried rice is a representative Chinese dish, at least in the old days. It has rice, it uses stir fry, it is cooked in the Cantonese style. I have heard people use fried rice as a symbol of Chinese cooking. While there are literally thousands of other Chinese dishes out there, fried rice may very well be the first thing that comes to some peoples' minds when the word Chinese cooking is mentioned.
Fried rice is always good, because you can toss just about anything in it and it will still taste good. I never eat it with soy sauce, because I think it ruins the taste sometimes. Never fry it for too long, or it will be burnt (like toast) and taste horrible. I eat it with tea or coke.
There is no set recipe, because this dish is so very flexible. However, these are my favorite ingredients.
Scrambled eggs
Peas
Roasted pork (cha siu, or Chinese BBQ pork works well)
Shrimp
Scallions
You can also have Chinese sausage, chicken, ginger, vegetables, or anything else you may fancy. Just make sure you add it at the right time, or some of the stir fried ingredients will be over-cooked and some under-cooked. This is the template for fried rice.
Some cooked rice (4 cups or so), cold
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
Some oil
Here's how to cook it:
Heat up the oil, add some ginger to sweeten, if desired. Stir-fry the cold rice until the grains are seperated. Then add the salt and peas, then stir fry some more. Toss in everything else, depending on the degree that those ingredients need to be cooked. For example, frozen peas need more time than already cooked meat, and scallions go last. Anyways, toss it around a bit, and serve it up. Don't heat it for too long. This dish can usually be prepared very quickly, as rice doesn't take too long to burn.
East to cook, tastes great. An excellent lunch dish.