How to cook perfect egg fried rice?

 

There's something suspicious about egg fried rice. Like garlic naan, or sausage pasta bake, it seems too perfectly tailored to British tastes to have ever seen the light of day in its alleged homeland.  Personally, I'd rather eat a vat of fried rice than a plate of cold jellyfish or a tureen of shark fin soup any day, but then my tastes are not exactly refined.

The other major market for fried rice is as a snack food – it's the ideal way to use up your leftovers, and this time, there's the distinct advantage of actually getting to eat it.

Although in British restaurants, we tend to hoof down fried rice as a side dish, it can comfortably serve as dinner itself, especially if you throw in a few extra vegetables or some chopped up meat or seafood. Rose Prince puts it perfectly in The New English Kitchen when she says that "an enormous bowl ... on the knee – a big cup of jasmine tea beside – makes an immaculate dinner on its own". The only thing I'd add is that a big glass of cold beer is an excellent substitute.