Love this post (and all your posts really)! 100% on the no soy.
As a Malaysian Chinese person I can't stand Uncle Roger because of the faux old-man HK accent he uses. He seems to be trying to make white people laugh by presenting a weird version of an Asian uncle?
BTW do you think wok hei is really achievable at home? Especially on these Australian gas burners? (I noticed they are way less hot than the ones in KL). Did you read Clarence Kwan's take on wok hei, considering the recent book on wok hei by Kenji Alt-Lopez?
I used to work on the fried rice wok at The Duck restaurant in the casino and we used a type of Chinese Wostershire sauce that made allll the difference to its flavor. I can’t for the life of me remember what it was, it definitely wasn’t soy, so if you have any ideas I’d love to know. Iv looked in Asian groceries and no luck. We used peanut oil to start it all off.
Yes that’s it! I just googled it and that’s exactly it! That fried rice was one of the best I’ve had.. only spring onion, bbq pork and Chinese sausage. Delicious
Jess, this missive on fried rice is timely for me because I'm becoming obsessed with it in lockdown. I met Gilbert Lau for an Epicure story once and he gave me his recipe (Chinese sausage, spring onions, ginger, swiss brown mushrooms). Then, of all people, I came across a great one on Neil Perry's Insta. I absolutely agree, it's all about preparation. But for me, the big revelation was mixing white pepper into the egg. Not sure about the no soy sauce rule though. Do you add any other flavouring? Sesame oil, perhaps? Loving your posts!
Salt, sugar and white pepper. I am very against adding sesame oil or even chilli oil to finish as the marks of a good fried rice is that it isn't greasy. Why go to all the trouble of making this dish properly, only to add grease to it afterwards? Fried rice is also not meant to be salty. That's just what people know here after all the years of greasy Aussie-Chinese restaurants. If you want to try something different, try making fried rice with salted fish or salted egg yolks.
In one fell no soy swoop, you just made me subscribe. I’m buckling up for the ride!
If only I had the presence and the voice of Koichi at Minamishima to mutter, "This one soy. This one, no soy."
Hiro at Shira Nui can also be quite severe and stern on the instruction of "No Soy Sauce"
Better every week! x
All good points, except the need to attack 69 million Thai people about using soy in fried rice
I’m not describing how to make Thai fried rice, I explicitly say it is Cantonese style.
Love this post (and all your posts really)! 100% on the no soy.
As a Malaysian Chinese person I can't stand Uncle Roger because of the faux old-man HK accent he uses. He seems to be trying to make white people laugh by presenting a weird version of an Asian uncle?
BTW do you think wok hei is really achievable at home? Especially on these Australian gas burners? (I noticed they are way less hot than the ones in KL). Did you read Clarence Kwan's take on wok hei, considering the recent book on wok hei by Kenji Alt-Lopez?
I used to work on the fried rice wok at The Duck restaurant in the casino and we used a type of Chinese Wostershire sauce that made allll the difference to its flavor. I can’t for the life of me remember what it was, it definitely wasn’t soy, so if you have any ideas I’d love to know. Iv looked in Asian groceries and no luck. We used peanut oil to start it all off.
The only thing I can think of is la jiangyou. Is that it?
Yes that’s it! I just googled it and that’s exactly it! That fried rice was one of the best I’ve had.. only spring onion, bbq pork and Chinese sausage. Delicious
Jess, this missive on fried rice is timely for me because I'm becoming obsessed with it in lockdown. I met Gilbert Lau for an Epicure story once and he gave me his recipe (Chinese sausage, spring onions, ginger, swiss brown mushrooms). Then, of all people, I came across a great one on Neil Perry's Insta. I absolutely agree, it's all about preparation. But for me, the big revelation was mixing white pepper into the egg. Not sure about the no soy sauce rule though. Do you add any other flavouring? Sesame oil, perhaps? Loving your posts!
Salt, sugar and white pepper. I am very against adding sesame oil or even chilli oil to finish as the marks of a good fried rice is that it isn't greasy. Why go to all the trouble of making this dish properly, only to add grease to it afterwards? Fried rice is also not meant to be salty. That's just what people know here after all the years of greasy Aussie-Chinese restaurants. If you want to try something different, try making fried rice with salted fish or salted egg yolks.