Hong Kong Fried Rice vs. Traditional Fried Rice | Tropical Chinese Restaurant (2024)

FAQs

Hong Kong Fried Rice vs. Traditional Fried Rice | Tropical Chinese Restaurant? ›

Hong Kong fried rice typically includes diced meat, while traditional fried rice does not. This gives Hong Kong fried rice a more substantial and filling quality, while traditional fried rice is more light and vegetal.

The answer: high heat, expert tosses, and something known as 'wok hei. ' As J. Kenji López-Alt writes for Serious Eats, expert cooking with a wok (and the gas range it requires) is one of the main reasons that fried rice from a Chinese restaurant tastes so much better than what you can make at home.

Special Fried Rice is typically distinguished by the addition of a variety of proteins, such as chicken, shrimp, or pork, along with a mix of colorful vegetables. This sets it apart from regular fried rice, which may only contain eggs and a limited selection of vegetables.

Typical side dishes like fried rice, lo mein noodles, crab rangoon, and egg rolls are high in calories — and fat. Healthier choices include steamed brown rice, sautéed or steamed vegetables, spring rolls, or soups like egg drop soup or hot and sour soup.

Cooking bits of chopped vegetables, seasoning, soy sauce, and oil, seems easy enough. However, when making fried rice at home, there's one ingredient you may be overlooking: Sugar.

To give your dish that signature fried rice taste, you'll need to drizzle in sesame oil and soy sauce, but feel free to use as much or as little as you wish. You can even mix in things like garlic powder, ginger root, or Sriracha sauce and chili pepper for a bit of a kick.

Day old rice is needed to avoid the rice being soggy. It also means that it's cold and dry enough so that it will fry in the wok in the oil, vs. basically steaming if you used fresh cooked rice. Don't mess about with the oil.

Yangzhou fried rice from Jiangsu Province is the most famous variety of fried rice in China. Known for the fine knifework in cutting the ingredients, it has been the model for “special fried rice” or "house fried rice" dishes found on Chinese restaurant menus in the West.

Its stickiness is what makes it so good for sushi, where the rice needs to hold together. Japanese fried rice trades the crispness of Chinese fried rice for a thicker mouthfeel where all of the ingredients move together as one.

What is Yang Chow fried rice vs fried rice? ›

The difference between Yangzhou fried rice and ordinary fried rice is that Yangzhou style invariably includes a combination of proteins. Rather than using a single protein like shrimp or pork or chicken as the dominant ingredient in fried rice, Yangzhou uses a variety.

It is a dish so widely accepted these days that some non-Chinese restaurants also feature it on their menus. Most countries in South East Asia such as Indonesia and Thailand have their own versions of the dish that they learnt from the Chinese but now consider part of their national cuisine.

Worst: General Tso's Chicken

Named after a Chinese war hero, this fat-laden dish won't help you win any weight loss battles. The breaded, fried chicken is smothered in a sugary sauce. One order clocks in at around 1,500 calories and 88 grams of fat, and it delivers more sodium than you should get in a day.

“Looking for foods that aren't breaded is a good start. And you can usually find lots of vegetables, like broccoli, carrots and sugar snap peas at Chinese takeout places, too.” Other dishes on the healthier side include: Moo goo gai pan, stir-fried lean chicken, mushrooms, water chestnuts, broccoli and carrots.

If the rice sits out for two hours at room temperature or one hour if the temperature is 90 degrees Fahrenheit or above (like eating outdoors), then the rice should be tossed.

How can you get that “taste” of fried rice from restaurants? The three main flavorings in most Chinese foods seem to be soy sauce, ginger and sesame oil. First you need cold rice. Then toss it with some soy sauce and let it sit in the fridge.

They very likely use a rice cooker - predictable results every time and a life saver if you need to cook lots of rice. They measure out the correct amount of water for the rice. They may season the rice with some salt. They may add aromatics.

Sesame oil.

I do not recommend omitting or substituting the sesame oil in this recipe. It is key to the authentic flavor of this dish.