fried rice

I have no idea -- Chinese is so not my area of expertise. But I know the sorts of things they add to Indian rice to give it its flavor -- spices such as saffron or whatever the name of that thing which I use a bay leaf for. (They also add some ghee, sometimes.) Anyway I suspect you might be able to add some Chinese spices to the water to adjust the flavor slightly. Don't they have some clove-like spice? Or bay-like?

i dunno what the SECRET is but that's how i do it

1. it's never good to fry rice that's just been cooked - you want all the moisture to have gone before you fry it, so ideally you want to steam the rice way before hand.

2. not essential, but it's good to add a bit of salt and soy sauce to the eggs as you bash them up before frying.

3. then it's wok time - heat up the oil, add the eggs and make sure they get moderately cooked before adding the rice - then you add a fair amount of soy sauce (light! dark soy sauce smells and make the rice a disgusting brown colour), hear it sizzle as it goes in, and then stir stir stir flip.

4. and then just keep going until it looks right i suppose (rice gets a bit brown), and then if you like it - add some finely chopped spring onion cos they smell gorgeous, and then, IMPORTANT, sesame oil which may be the most important thing of all, oh the smell, the taste! shouldn't need any more salt or anything cos the soy sauce would be all you need

and that's all! i reckon you probably were missing the sesame oil

i dunno what you'd do to make steamed rice taste different - in singapore/malaysia they have a famous hainan chicken rice which involves first frying the rice grains briefly with garlic and then cook with chicken stock.

but there's nothing special that you need to do with normal steamed rice. secret is just to not cook it with too much water (much easier to do with a rice cooker than a saucepan method)

I put a few drops of sesame oil in the rice cooker water when I steam the rice. Very nice. Also, a tiny dash of 5-spice powder to the egg for fried rice.

i work with this chinese dude who swears by pressure cooking rice. it's the best if you like your rice all stuck together, it's faster and you don't have to pay much attention to it. just put 1:1 rice/h20 on til it start's blowin steam out the hole, put on the doohicky that exerts pressure turn the heat to a whisper and go watch the tube. i make fried rice with the rice like 2 days later.

Its probably a rather obvious thing to add, but I found that using jasmine rice made a major difference to the authenticity of the taste, of not just fried rice but curries and other things too. Maybe thats all it is?

I should perhaps start a good thread, but what are suggestions for what to do with leftover rice?

Arancini!

yeah, rice balls. or cold rice salads, or rice pudding, or congee.

As part of the filling for burritos, or casseroled with vegetables and escalloped or augratined.

Also, toast some and grind it coarsely and sprinkle on Thai curries and salads.