MUZIChinese Matrix
A round white porcelain plate holds separate grains of white fried rice mixed with yellow pieces of scrambled egg and small pieces of green scallion, with a pair of wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate on the table.
Rice as a grain, its main kinds, and the plain rice and congee cooked from it.
Dan chao fan is cold rice stir-fried with scrambled egg and seasoned with salt and scallion. The 2 versions here have distinct styles: takeout style adds turmeric and paprika to the egg, plus onion, red pepper and peas; the plain home version uses only eggs, rice, scallion and salt and was a snack its recipe author ate during childhood in Beijing. Its history rests on an unsourced Sui-dynasty tale; no dated text was found, so no year is given.
Dan chao fan is cooked rice that has been allowed to cool (day-old or cold rice), stir-fried with egg and seasoned with salt and scallion.1,2,4,5
No dated text was found; accounts of the Sui-dynasty story are unsourced or supported only by blogs and magazines, so it is treated as a legend, not a basis for dating.1,2
Egg fried rice has many regional variants. Of the 2 recipes here, one is takeout style, and the other recreates a snack its author ate during childhood in Beijing.2,4,5
The plain method: heat the oil until very hot, pour in the beaten eggs and scramble them lightly, chop the cold rice in, add salt and scallion, and cook 2–3 minutes more until the rice turns slightly golden. The takeout method: turmeric and paprika go into the egg, onion, red pepper and peas are added, and the seasoning is salt, sugar and pepper, with scallion.4,5
Both recipes use rice cooked ahead, cold or day-old. The explanation that leftover rice is drier concerns Yangzhou fried rice, a different dish; the available sources give no further explanation for egg fried rice.3,4,5
Egg fried rice has many regional variants, and the 2 recipes here show different styles: one is takeout style and the other is plain home style.2,4,5
Legend has it that when Emperor Yang of Sui visited Jiangdu (today’s Yangzhou) he ordered egg fried rice and named it “broken gold rice.” The golden egg around the white rice gave it the name “gold wrapped around silver,” and the people of Yangzhou later called it Yangzhou fried rice.
Told in: A folk tale told in the Chinese Wikipedia entry on egg fried rice, which gives no source for it and carries a notice that the entry lacks sources.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the plain egg fried rice I make at home, with just eggs, cold rice, scallion and salt. The amounts and the time after the rice goes in follow one recipe by a named author, and the conversion from cups to grams is my own estimate. A second recipe by another named author is in takeout style, with turmeric and paprika in the egg and onion, red pepper and peas added; I did not follow it and mention it just in the tips.
Allergens: egg, sesame
