Posting another “fried rice” as is again!
Shanghai Veggie Rice 上海菜饭, only salt and white pepper as seasoning. Not even scallions this time! (This is the traditional way of doing it. Look it up, I dare you)
This time, it’s even a little mushy!
So enjoy this on your feed! I’ll be prepping another one next week!
No MSG? Uncle Roger isn’t gonna be happy.
Fuyoo!
Both this post and your last one have been entertaining to look at the comments for. It’s like people don’t understand that there isn’t a single canonical fried rice recipe decreed by Mr. Fried Rice himself in 3000 AD. When it comes to Chinese food this is especially ridiculous.
I think it’s great to give criticism and feedback on food. If I was posting food here, that’s what I’d want. But, of course, it’s a little bit fruitless since you really have to taste the thing to say for sure. But feedback and criticism should always be given with respect to what the dish is intended to be.
I honestly didn’t dispute the score, but things definitely got wildly personal last time. I suppose my response to it didn’t help. I’m used to people using personal attacks to get what they want, so I’ve hardened myself over such interactions over time: if you do that irl I’m going to go mongoose on ya. :P
But definitely gotta taste the food to be sure. But who knows, maybe everything I make is made of clay or something.
There’s always more ways to criticise than there are ways to agree so the comments create a negative atmosphere. Upvotes don’t balance them out because comments carry more emotional weight. Votes are nearly empty, emotionally, so it takes hundreds of upvotes to counter a single negative comment.
This is built into the structure of the threadiverse and it skews things towards the negative. I’m pondering ways to counter that but I’m not optimistic about finding a solution.
Looks peak!! Kinda makes us want to make fried rice :3
That is how I made my fried rice for over 5 years, because there was a smoke detector right above the stove.
I mean it can taste pretty good if you know what you are doing.
That’s not fried. There is zero fry on that rice.
Exactly! Maybe a bit of a quick toss but that’s it!
Subverting expectations?
Dry harder
I mean it does look pretty awful but I’m certain it fucking slaps.
Hope you don’t mind if I learn along with! I have been committing crimes against rice as well.
Welcome aboard! We have plenty of carbs for everyone!
*Quality may vary.
Is it like a meme to say bad things about it? Dk about others, to me it looks great! Has all it takes to taste heavenly, too
you’re gonna struggle to get a good sear on that ceramic top. the cooktops they use in east Asia look like friggin jet engines, and mise en place is basically a necessity because of how fast things move. even on full blast your wok is gonna struggle to maintain temp up those rounded sides.
that said, authenticity in food is just another story we tell ourselves. the chilis in Asian cuisine, just like the tomatoes in Italy or the potatoes in Ireland, came from America. i say go nuts. the experiments are more fun to me than an “authentic ramen”, a dish that was invented in the 20th century and designed to be pub food.
While this is true, you can do a pretty good job at replicating it on a regular stovetop. Years ago, I watched a YouTube video of a French guy who tested a bunch of methods for recreating cooking fried rice with a jet engine but on a home stove.
He found that the best method was the following:
- Use a thick cast iron pan on medium heat to cook your eggs.
- Add your rice then add your veggies.
- Keep mixing and cook until veggies reach desired doneness.
- Then to finish, max out the heat and move all your rice to the center of the pan exposing the edges all around.
- Pour your soy sauce around the edges so it instantly starts boiling and evaporating most of the water.
- Mix everything together for a few minutes then done.
I’ve been doing this method for years and it works amazingly well. Before using this method, I found my fried rice would often come out mushy or wet. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to recreating restaurant fried rice. Id say it’s about 90% of the way there and my fried rice is probably my favorite dish I make now.
It’s a bit of a problem. But then again, apartment living takes its toll.
The biggest problem with the glass stovetop is actually continuous heat. I usually combat it with a carbon steel wok and preheating aggressively and moving it off the heat when needed. But that wok is smaller, so for stuff based on volume I’m back to this non stick again.
Is it authentic is for smooth brains. Is it delicious is far more important.
Butane wok burners are a thing and pretty cheap!
You can also use a charcoal chimney starter for wok cooking.
While I think this is great out-of-the-box thinking, it sounds a bit unsafe.
I can’t find the clip online, but I learned it from an episode of Good Eats.
While looking for it, I ran across a different video from Alex “French Guy Cooking”, who has an improved design. In it, he says he heard about the idea of using a chimney starter for wok cooking from Kenji Lopez-Alt, so that’s at least three pretty-famous TV cooking people who endorse the idea.
Wok on 🤘
I do like Uncle Roger’s recipe and his comments on other people making fried rice. But in general I don’t like gatekeeping. I try to follow “don’t yuck someone else’s yum”. The most important thing is that you enjoy your fried rice, fuck the haters.
I get it. One controversial rule that I do follow is “no msg”. It’s one of the few things that might drive people crazy. Especially Uncle Roger.
Back in the early 2000s there was a government (not sure if regional or national) campaign in China that pushed for reducing MSG consumption based on health research at the time. While I’m not sure how many households actually listened, ours did - no MSG in anything homemade + avoid eating out whenever possible.
These days, it seems like the MSG health debate has shifted in the opposite direction. I still avoid it whenever possible cause (1) a lot of times people add MSG to sub for ingredients that add umami and it’s easier to add the actual stuff (dried scallops, mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, sugar, etc) and (2) suppose someone says high fructose corn syrup is safe to eat in large quantities tomorrow, are you willing to make the switch? I’m pretty sure most people would still be hesitant.
So things would probably taste better with MSG, but I just prefer to personally avoid it. That being said, if guests would prefer to add it, they are free to do so themselves.
Messaging while eating? No way!
For the uncultured swines like me:
Monosodium glutamate, or MSG, is one of the most popular flavor enhancers in the world — an ingredient that gives food a savory or umami taste.
That push happened in the US too around the same time, but it only focused on Chinese food. News outlets made a big fuss about it, yet rarely if ever pointed out how widely MSG was used in the US outside of Chinese food.
The claim was that MSG caused headaches based on research from the 70s and 80s, which has had mixed results in studies throughout the years and now has no strong link IIRC.
Either way its usage is personal preference, like any other spice or cooking method, and I wholeheartedly agree with your first point about subbing msg.
Yeah, it turns out that racism causes headaches. There is more MSG in a can of Campbell’s soup than an entire vat of Chinese cooking.
Yeah, I also avoid MSG because I think it makes everything taste the same.
i’d already been really sick of that “everyone’s so creative” cooking content for a while, because it’s mostly just bullying, but uncle roger put me off him for good when he ballbusted a 12 year old for using a bench scraper. you know, the extremely common tool that every youtube cook uses in every single video.
Uncle Roger is comedy, he’s not actually going after anyone. Like Lionfield, who do this for Italian food. I don’t like culinary gatekeeping, but I can still see their content for what it is intended to be.
Racist AF?
I like it slightly crispy. This is definitely too moist for me.
It’s actually not really a “fried rice”, since it’s supposed to be steaming rice with veg + sausage.
But then people realized the baby bok choy turns yellow if you do that, hence an extra toss in the wok. It’s definitely closer to steamed rice though.
That makes sense. If I wanted fried rice and got this instead I’d be sad cause I love the texture of fried rice with my whole heart and soul, but I get not having a great way to label it short of typing out “steamed rice with veggies and sausage”, which doesn’t really sound as nice
It would make me sad if I was expecting fried rice though lol
Cute username by the way!
Where’s the pineapple?
Enjoying its best life in a Taiwanese pastry!
Rice salad isn’t supposed to be cooked.
I’m gonna call it this now, thanks.
Or the more fancy french: Salade de riz (same ingredients).
You’re telling me a Shanghai Veggie fried this rice??
