Location: My tiny kitchen

A plate of Yeung Chow Fried Rice with the classic ingredients: BBQ pork, shrimp, peas and egg. There is so much ingredient that I can hardly see the rice.

One of the best ways to understand someone is by watching how they do a task, and I always learn a lot about someone when I watch them cook. Recipes are often written with room for imagination, and it’s rare to find two persons interpret a recipe in exactly the same way. Fried rice is one of those recipes that can be easily changed to suit individual preferences, and I have noticed people who are alike tend to cook fried rice in a similar way.

My brother and I both love cooking fried rice. He loves salmon and one day he created a delicious fried rice using salmon. He used so much salmon in the fried rice that even he laughed and said “I’m making fried salmon, not fried rice.”. We both like things in abundant; we are the type of people who like a lot of fillings in a sandwich and we refuse to eat sandwiches with “empty corners” – when the four corners have little or almost no filling.

Just as we thought everybody should be like us, liking fried rice with a lot of ingredients, we met a friend who is the opposite. When he tried my sandwiche, he took out the extra ham and cheese. When he tried my fried rice, he picked out the extra shrimps, BBQ pork and peas. He likes to keep things simple in life. He’s the type of guy who is happy with a TV at home and never considers building a home theater. He is a die-hard believer of “less is more”.

It’s funny how our personalities make who we are. When I was small, I always thought what I like is what everyone likes. After all, who doesn’t like fried rice that has lots of things in it? One of the best things I like about cooking, which might also explain why I’m also so crazy about it, is to understand different tastes and create dishes that satisfy different tastes. Having said that though, I still think my friend is somewhat strange.

To make my loaded version of Yeung Chow fried rice, you will need:

- 1 1/2 cup of diced BBQ pork
- 1 1/2 cup of cooked small shrimps
- 1 cup of green peas
- 2 eggs
- 4 bowls of cooked rice (to see how rice should be prepared, read Portebella mushroom fried rice)
- 1/2 cup of diced green onion
- Soy sauce
- Freshly ground pepper

In a non stick pan over high heat, stir fry BBQ pork for a minute.

Add in shrimp and stir fry quickly.

Add in green peas and freshly ground pepper, stir fry for a minute. Put all ingredients into a bowl

Put 2 tbsp of oil in the pan. Put 2 bowls of rice into the pan. Using a spatula, gently loosen up the rice. Turn the heat to medium and fry the rice until each grain is separated. Turn the heat to high and crack an egg in the middle of the rice. Very quickly, scramble the egg and mix it into the rice. Stir fry the rice until the egg has been cooked, about 1 minute. Put 3 tbsp of soy sauce in the middle of the rice and mix the soy sauce into the rice.

Put half of the shrimps, BBQ pork and peas into the rice. Stir fry until the ingredients and rice are mixed well together. Turn off the heat when done and mix in half of the green onion.

Repeat with the second batch and you are done.

How do you like your fried rice to be made?