Rice is great.
Its delicious. Its satisfying. Best of all, its relatively cheap!
However, eating just plain old white rice can be...quite bland (Unless its Jasmine rice; I can eat that by itself for days). Fortunately, the human race is a clever species so when they got tired of eating plain old rice, they thought: Hey, fried chicken tastes good, so why not fried rice?
Okay that might not be how it started but the point is that fried rice is a dish that people who had rice could probably come up with pretty easily.
There are many countries that lay claim to this wondrous piece of stir-fried ingenuity, so finding the origin of this dish was a lot more irritating than google makes it to be. Lucky for you, I've been told that there's nothing in the world more irritating than me so finding this needle in the hay stack was a piece of cake!
Anyways, lets go straight to the main topic!
Although there are many contenders, the most probable country that deserves the right to call themselves the birthplace of fried rice is....wait for it..... China!!!!! (Yeah, that was sorta expected)
To be honest, this makes a lot of sense since China was the one who spread rice around Asia so they've been exposed to it the longest.
Now, the earliest record of fried rice came from the Sui Dynasty (589-618 CE or AD, same thing) in the city of Yangzhao of the eastern Jiangsu province while the method of stir frying (which is essential in fried rice FYI) came a bit earlier.
The creation of fried rice is believed to be due to the Chinese looking for a way to use unconsumed rice as opposed to just throwing it away. This method of using excess rice was spread throughout Asia as other countries were influenced by the Chinese. This gave birth to the many variants of fried rice we all know today!!!
Okay, so that's great and all. There's no big debate on who really invented fried rice since almost all sources point to the Chinese. But I'm thinking that this report is too short so lets look at some of the variants!
Cantonese Fried Rice
Not a big difference from traditional Chinese Fried Rice except for the fact that it usually is served with gravy.
Yin Yang Fried Rice
Fried rice topped with two different sauces. Its usually a savory white sauce and a red tomato based sauce. Sometimes the chef will make a yin yang symbol with the sauces which compels the eater to take a picture before eating it.
Omurice
Fried rice in an egg. Usually ketchup fried rice. Kids love this stuff.
Bokkeum-bap (볶음밥)
Korean style fried rice. Usually made with whatever ingredients are available so there are many variations. My favorite is Kimchi.
Nasi Goreng
Indonesian and Malay fried rice. What sets it apart from other fried rice dishes is the use of sweet soy sauce.
Thai Fried Rice
The flavor of this variant of fried rice is very different from the other typical fried rice dishes. There are many reasons why with the main one being the use of jasmine rice as well as oyster sauce. I'm half-thai so this is naturally the fried rice I grew up with. Totally delish~
Curry Fried Rice
No explanation needed for this one. This sh*t is bomb.
Welp, that's about it for this blog post. I know its a bit short but I'll try to find something a bit more interesting next time. Please rate and comment below any suggestions on what I should research next! I'm thinking fried chicken...good stuff. See you guys around~
Fried Rice is Delish~
Author
Hatchy
【Shem's Big Bro】【Aiiee's Clone】
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