Cooking: Soy Sauce Fried Rice

Soy sauce fried rice is a dead simple dish, but it tastes way better than it has any right to.

The stuff you’re frying is basically just rice — day-old rice is best — and then whatever else you feel like throwing in. Boiled corn, lettuce, shiitake, shrimp, bacon, whatever you’ve got, just dump it in. The soy sauce is the point.

First, fry an egg. Normally you’d want a runny-yolk fried egg, but that’s too expensive, so we make do with a regular egg. Keep it soft.

Heat the oil and swirl it around the wok first, then drop to the lowest flame and add the egg. A little salt and pepper is fine. Flip it, then take it out.

Next, stir-fry some add-ins. If you’ve got shiitake and shrimp, throw them in and pull them out at about 70% done.

Then in goes the rice, medium-low heat. Press it with the spatula, break up the clumps, add three spoonfuls of light soy sauce and one of dark soy sauce, and keep tossing until it takes on color.

Now add the stuff you set aside earlier back in and toss it around. Less than a minute and it’s ready to come out.

Finally, put your egg on top…

Done.