Got Rice?

October 8th, 2006 at 04:05 pm

After going out to Thai food with coworkers Friday, I noticed that, while everyone bagged up their leftover food, none of them wanted the rice. Those beautiful mounds of untouched rice, still hot and sweating inside the takeout containers....how can anyone resist? I asked them for it and got it. Then coworkers fired questions at me: "What are you going to do with it?" "How are you going to eat all that?"

Two words- fried rice.

Fried rice has long been the "black sheep" of Asian Cuisine- or so people may think! In fact, at any lunch shop in Taiwan at least, there are dozens of varieties of fried rice to choose from. Fried rice is certainly not laughed at by Asians. It is a most versatile dish- nearly anything goes in it. Add shrimp, add egg, add leftover cut up steak, add frozen (or fresh) vegetables. Even add hot dog or bacon for some nice saltiness.

And my personal recommendation is actually to use leftover restaurant rice, since they use short grain "Uncle Ben"-type of rice that is drier than typical Asian longgrain rice.

So next time you order Chinese or some sort of Asian take out, don't be afraid to ask....got rice?

Posted in Frugal Eats | 7 Comments »

7 Responses to “Got Rice?”

contrary1 Says:
October 8th, 2006 at 04:11 pm

Good reminder about the rice. I don't go out for Chinese that often......but when I load up the rice cooker here for a meal, I always do more than one meals worth. The leftovers are stuck in the fridge for a batch of fried rice the next night. A great way to clean out dabs of stuff from the fridge or garden.
JanH Says:
October 8th, 2006 at 04:44 pm

I love fried rice. I just found a good recipe this past week and am going to try to do it myself since we eat a lot of rice. Can't wait.
tynana Says:
October 8th, 2006 at 04:48 pm

My DH is Asian and we both love it when there is leftover rice. Fried rice can't be beat. I add any left over pork, ham, beef to the rice also.
Carolina Bound Says:
October 8th, 2006 at 05:27 pm

I make fried rice often, and I'm not Asian. It's just such a good dish to use things up; it tastes good, too!
Broken Arrow Says:
October 9th, 2006 at 05:29 am

Fried rice is awesome, although the basic stable is still just plain white rice. Back in my days anyway, fried rice is considered a luxury, and millet was considered as "poor people rice", though it's pretty darn good too depending on what you serve it with.

But yeah, great work getting all that free rice.
Money Talk$ Says:
October 27th, 2006 at 09:53 am

Hot dog fried rice is awesome! Takes a pot and a pan...scramble eggs, add steamed rice, add frozen veggies, add soy sauce, and my flavor trick add a little teriyaki sauce, let this simmer to thaw out those veggies while you take yestersday's leftover hot dogs and cut them in to small slices. Fry these slices in a pan then add them to the rice mix and stir it up. Quite tasty...if you don't have time to fry the rice...really doesn't take much work but you have to stir it over the heat to thaw/cook the veggies, get some spam...slice it up and fry the slices. Serve them with white steamed rice...you won't believe how good it is until you try it!
kealina Says:
November 12th, 2006 at 07:15 pm

yum... my mom makes awesome fried rice and it is great for finishing up those bits and pieces... fried spam and white rice is delicious too although it may just be super popular here in hawaii....

Cents Not Much Make

A blog that dares to explore my scattered thoughts on all things financial and otherwise

Got Rice?

7 Responses to “Got Rice?”

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