As I have been exposed to Chinese-Malay food for quite sometime and developed a craving to it to a certain degree, some Filipino dishes that I usually prepare has mutated into a mixture of different cuisines that I now have difficulty identifying them. One of these is my fried rice recipe. A former boss (he’s Chinese-Bruneian) once volunteered to cook fried rice for midnite makan as we were rushing to finish a project. Now it is something that I prepare for breakfast or even lunch. As always, I am on the lookout for the easy-to-cook dish.

As a child, the norm is to stir-fry cooked rice w/ garlic. We may crack an egg, add a teaspoon of soy sauce & stir the rice w/ it as another way of doing it and that’s about it. Here, I still do the browning of garlic to bring out the aroma as a tribute to what sinangag (Filipino for fried rice) really is, and then proceed to all the Chinese stuff. The fried egg topping is definitely Malay inspired. I could have easily called it nasi goreng istimewa (Malay for special fried rice) but that has dilis or dried small fish & shrimp paste, and worth of another blog post.

Ingredients:
leftover cooked rice
1/2 cup of shredded cooked pork (we had leftover pork tapa :laugh: )
2 tbsp crushed garlic
1 tomato
1/2 cup of shredded cabbage
1 medium onion
1 tbsp soya sauce
a few drops of sesame oil
1 cup of sliced Chinese chorizos (steamed separately)
2 eggs, beaten
salt & pepper

I chose to steam the chorizo separately so as not to overcook it & lose its flavor thru frying. I find that it tastes better this way.

Fry the eggs until desired firmness. Slice & set aside.

Heat the oil and fry the garlic until golden brown. Add the onion, cabbage and pork, and continue frying until the cabbage is crispy. Add the rice, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly until every grain is coated. Then add the steamed chorizo, tomato and sesame oil, and mix again for less than a minute. Serve hot w/ the fried eggs (& salted eggs) as toppings.

Talk doesn’t cook rice. – Chinese Proverbs

Iska

I am not a professional cook. My only claim to having a culinary background is a short stint as my dad’s teen ‘sous chef’ in his carinderia ages ago. Dad ran small eateries since I was a young kid - serving standard ‘turo-turo’ food ranging from the likes of menudo, adobo, pritong isda, dinuguan, binagoongan, bopis, munggo, pinakbet and giniling to merienda fares like goto, ginataan, pancit bihon, halu-halo and saging con yelo.

My father, a farmer in his hometown before working his way to becoming an accountant, definitely influenced my cooking in a lot of ways than I thought. My siblings and I were raised in a backyard full of fruit trees and vegetable garden. We spent weekends and the summer breaks running around with ducks, chickens, goats and pigs. I had wonderful memories of gathering eggs, butchering chickens, selling vegetables and the sweet aroma of preserved fruits. But my love for art led me to a degree in Architecture. Just few months after getting my license, I went abroad and lived independently at age 23. Definitely no maid, no cook, and a totally different food culture. Along the way I met lots of friends and spent what seemed a lifetime learning new tricks and recipes.

Now living in Auckland, I am a work-from-home mum who juggles time between work, fun and family - in pursuit of work-life balance. No matter how busy I am, I love the idea of cooking for my family. My blog chronicles home cooking greatly influenced by life outside my home country from Southeast Asia to Beijing and Auckland. And most of the time, being busy also means easy (sometimes quick), affordable meals.