Image Credit to: Bear Naked Food
Japanese garlic fried rice is available in almost every Japanese restaurant and has its own different aroma and taste. It is the perfect comfort food for people all around the world with a simple recipe to follow and prepare.
What Is Garlic Fried Rice?
Japanese garlic fried rice is also known as Chahan in Japanese. A bowl of delicious garlic fried rice is often simple. The dish features golden coloured rice along with small chunks of fried egg topped with spring onions and fried garlic – what we would typically have in our pantry.
Garlicky and buttery with unique smoky flavour from the fried garlic, this simple Japanese Garlic Fried Rice is one of the go-to rice dishes. It can also be cooked with shrimp or meat to increase its flavour.
There are many ways to prepare this comforting dish, and it is recommended to make fried rice using cold or leftover rice. This results in a better texture in the fried rice and will be chewier compared to freshly-cooked rice. If leftover rice is not available, rice can be cooked early in the morning and then fried in the evening.
The use of dried, cooked rice that is refrigerated overnight is also conducive toward enhancing the cooking process. This version of fried rice is starchier from the rest as Japanse short grain is used instead of regular long-grain rice.
Difference Between Japanese Fried Rice And Chinese Fried Rice
The main difference between Japanese and Chinese fried rice is the rice used. Long and dry grain rice is typically used in Chinese fried rice while the Japanese version uses stickier short-grain rice. There are also some differences in terms of seasoning and ingredients such as mushrooms and meat.
History Of Fried Rice
The history of fried rice can be dated way back to the city of Yangzhou, AD 589 – 618 during the Sui Dynasty. Yangzhou fried rice is the basic standard of all fried rice out there. This dish consists typically of roast pork, scallions, onions, prawns with fluffy rice.
Nowadays, fried rice is found not only in China but also in all parts of Asia with different varieties. Fried rice is said to reach Japan via Chinese immigrants at Kobe in the 1860s. And the term chahan in Japanese highly resembles chaofan, which means fried rice in Chinese.
Types Of Fried Rice
Different regions have their own version of fried rice. Japanese have their garlic fried rice, while we Malaysians have our own “nasi goreng” with varying types of mains such as chicken or seafood. If you are going for Chinese style, there are options such as Yangzhou fried rice or shrimp fried rice.
Thailand also has its signature pineapple fried rice fried with chunks of pineapple, giving the fried rice a fruity flavour. Kimchi fried rice is also famous among Koreans, which is easily prepared by mixing kimchi in regular fried rice.
Omuraisu, which is a modified version of rice, is basically fried rice wrapped in a beautiful egg omelette topped with ketchup. Speciality omuraisu restaurants are found all over Japan, demonstrating the love of Japanese towards fried rice.
Where To Find Garlic Fried Rice In Malaysia
Fried rice can be found in almost every restaurant in Malaysia. You may go to a Malay stall for Malay style fried rice, or Indian and Chinese stalls for their form of fried rice respectively. As for Japanese garlic fried rice, they can only be found in Japanese restaurants, and every restaurant has its own style of preparing it.
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