Yángzhōu chǎofàn

Yangzhou fried rice ( Traditional Chinese: 揚州炒飯; Simplified Chinese : 扬州炒饭; Pinyin : ''Yángzhōu chǎofàn,'' Jyutping: ''Joeng4zau1 Caau2faan6'') is a popular Chinese-style wok fried rice dish in many Chinese restaurants throughout the world. It is commonly sold in the UK as special fried rice, in the US as house special fried rice, and in Vietnam as cơm chiên dương châu.

Ingredients

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. Most commonly used is a combination of pork, shrimp and frequently chicken or duck. Ordinarily, some of its staple items include:

* Cooked rice (preferably day-old, because freshly cooked rice is too sticky due to higher water content)
* Chinese-style roast pork or lap cheong
* Some sort of seafood, generally shrimp
* Roasted or boiled chicken, duck or other protein
* Scallions (spring onions or green onions), chopped, including green end
* Fresh vegetables such as kai-lan, carrots, peas, corn, and bamboo shoots
* Egg

Sea cucumber and crab meat are traditional elements. The peas may be a replacement for the green onions. Some recipes include Shaoxing wine. Some western Chinese restaurants also use soy sauce to flavor the rice, and add meat such as chicken.

History

Yangzhou fried rice is a perhaps the most well-known dish of the city of Yangzhou, Jiangsu province. The recipe was invented by Qing China's Yi Bingshou (1754–1815) and the dish was named Yangzhou fried rice since Yi was once the regional magistrate of Yangzhou. It is often served with thousand fish soup. There are two ways of cooking the dish in terms of the preparation of the scrambled egg. The first variation is known as "silver-covered gold", in which the egg is scrambled separately before mixing with the rice. The alternative "gold-covered silver" method is described as pouring the liquid egg over the rice and vegetables mix and frying the two together. Various traditions call for a rice–egg ratio of 5:1 or 3:1.

Failed world record attempt

In October 2015, as part of the 2,500th anniversary of the town of Yangzhou, an attempt was made in Yangzhou at beating the previous world record for fried rice set in 2014 by the Turkey culinary federation. The attempt, made by the World Association of Chinese Cuisine resulted in of Yangzhou fried rice being produced by a team of 300 cooks. The organizers initially planned to send the end product to five companies for consumption by their staff. However, about of it ended up as pig swill, as it had been cooked for four hours and was felt unsuitable for human consumption. As per the organizers' intents, the rest was sent to local canteens. However, due to a part of it being sent to feed animals, the world record attempt was disqualified, as a Guinness World Records spokesman said that it had become obvious that the dish was not fit for human consumption.

See also

* List of Chinese dishes
* List of fried rice dishes

References

{{cookbook, Yeung chow fried rice

American Chinese cuisine
American rice dishes
Canadian Chinese cuisine
Cantonese cuisine
Chinese rice dishes
Fried rice
Hong Kong cuisine
Macau cuisine
Yangzhou
American pork dishes