Ginger Fried Rice
Han and I are both near-sighted, very, very near-sighted. Without wearing contacts, we have to lean our foreheads against computer screens in order to see and type. That’s how bad our eyes are! For some reason, the contact lenses that we bought from China haven’t been serving us very well lately. We decided to go get an eye exam and order some new contacts.
The eye place we went to is located on 4th floor in Westfield Shopping Center on Market Street. When the escalator brought us to the 4th floor, this Singaporean restaurant called STRAITS was right in front of us. Without too much thinking, we went ahead to flip through their menu. Things looked good!
“Wanna try after the eye exam?” Han asked me.
“Yes, definitely!” If you ask me how I like living in San Francisco so far, I will tell you that SF has successfully turned me into a fat-ass foodie. That’s how the city has been treating me. In other words, I don’t say “no” to any food related offer.
Everything went pretty smoothly, and as we left Westfield Shopping Center, this was the list of the stuff that kept spinning in my head –
- The doctor had said to me during the exam, “Since you and your husband are both very near-sighted, there’s a high possibility that your kids are going to be near-sighted as well.” Apparently, she said the same thing to Han too. Hmmm…OK…Well…that’s good to know, I guess.
- That braised beef with brown rice and Indian street noodles we ordered at the restaurant were so good! We should take our friends there sometime.
- Since we have lots of leftover brown rice from STRAITS now, I am going to cook some fried rice…
I left the brown rice in the fridge and started searching for a different way to cook fried rice out of it instead of using a traditional Chinese way. Luckily, I found out this Ginger Fried Rice recipe from Smitten Kitchen which completely changed my perspective on fried rice. It’s so different, unique, interesting, fun to make and delicious. How? The author of Smitten Kitchen Deb describes how exactly to transform a classic Chinese dish to this marvelous version by a French hand:
For one, it has leeks, which although used in both Chinese and French cooking, I can’t say I’ve ever seen them caramelized for fried rice. Second, egg isn’t scrambled into the dish, but pulled out, fried whole and laid on top of the rice. There are other deconstructions too: the ginger and garlic are fried until crisp and scattered over the dish, like bacon bits from the Far East, rather than tucked within. And rather than cooking the rice in gobs of soy sauce and sesame oil, both are conservatively drizzled on top at the end like droplets of a pan sauce.
I have to say that scattering the crispy ginger and garlic over the dish is absolutely a nice touch and a sunny-side-up egg on top of the fried rice brings an incredible addition to this dish, especially when I ate the flavored rice with the flowing yolk, oh my! It made my day!
If you happen to have some leftover rice, I guarantee that Deb’s recipe will let you make the most of it, plus it makes for an easy and fun cooking experience, with a great main course for your families. (Oh, I would suggest to add some ground black pepper into the rice. :))
Now there’s one more thing spinning in my head – Ginger Fried Rice, Ginger Fried Rice, Ginger Fried Rice…
About the Author
Sharon Chen is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, an author and a sous vide fanatic who believes food not only brings healing but also connection. As the creator of StreetSmart Kitchen, she's on a mission to help you find balance, ease, joy, and simplicity in the kitchen as you improve your well-being.
