Que Sera Sara?

It’s an old cliché that you are what you eat. In my case, I eat what I am.

If you wanted to take the temperature of any given day in my life, you could do much worse than observe my food habits.

Whatever I’m putting in my mouth is probably directly correlated to how I feel.

Have you ever noticed that seeing old friends or visiting family will  inevitably end in consuming things none of you have eaten since you were all together last? No? Just me. Oh. Okay. Well somehow  Twizzlers or Combos or PBR or pepperoni sticks weasel their way into my reunions. I don’t know either. Bastards.

Anyway, homesickness (or just plain sickness today) often brings on a desire to replicate old-fashioned foods. To settle into the familiar.

The scents and flavours of being a kid give me permission to curl under the covers and watch old movies.

Today, in the dreary monsoon season now synonymous with Edinburgh’s festivals, I wanted a belly full of home: the warm, squishy, blandness of take away chicken fried rice.

And bonus: it is terribly easy, ridiculously cheap and quite bad for me. Plus it uses up leftovers. Score.

I can kill a lot of birds with that one.

Chicken Fried Rice

Ingredients

• 4 cups cooked rice ( the perfect use for leftovers!)
• 1-2 cups cooked chicken (oh, you don’t have any fresh chicken around? Why yes, a handful of chicken nuggets is a great idea! The breading will add texture for sure)
• 2 eggs
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, diced
• 1 cup of peas, frozen is perfect
• 6 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tsp ground ginger/ chili (totally optional)
• oil

You could totally add real vegetables or healthy stuff, but come on. Today is sappy sadness lunch for one, give me a break.

MONSTER soy sauce courtesy of the dollar store. the label is even in Chinese characters. sketchtastic, but still delicious.

Directions

[If you’re using uncooked chicken and/or raw rice, cook them as per instructions first.]

• Scramble the egg on medium high heat. [If you’re lazy like me, just ziuze (yes. totally a word. sounds a lot like jizz. but isn’t. obviously.) it around the pan with a fork while it fries and save whisking it in a bowl first. You want it thin rather than fluffy anyway] Remove it from the pan after cooking.
• Put the empty pan back on the stove top and turn the heat up. Add the oil.
  

  this bowl is courtesy of #14, and so apt!

• Once it’s screaming hot, add the regular onion & garlic. After a couple of minutes add any spices.
• Roughly chop up the chicken and scrambled egg.
• Add the rice, peas, chicken, spring onion, cooked egg & soy sauce. Fry everything for 5 minutes or so – until the soy sauce has been all soaked up and the rice is piping hot.

et voila.

crappy take away for dvd night, and a fraction of the price.

excuse me, the couch is calling.