In formal traditional authentic Sichuan cuisine, fried rice has almost no place. If you have ever been in a formal occasion, you probably would have noticed fried rice is more like an after-thought. Basically, it is not something you are proud to make for your respectable guest.
It is more often cooked at home. When parents got home after work, they want to fix a quick dinner. With eggs, vegetable, left-over rice, voila, there is fried-rice for whole family.
So that is secret number one for good fried-rice: left-over rice. Or, you need to cook rice with texture like left-over from last night first.
Secret number two: pork lard. It is very hard to find good pork lard in New York. And a lot of customers don’t like pork lard, so we use vegetable oil instead in Legend 72. But if you ever traveled to Sichuan, or you happen to date some hardcore foodie from Sichuan, challenge the person with pork lard. You will get very nice surprise, not just tasty fried rice, but much more other dishes you would enjoy tremendously.
Lastly, good fried rice needs creative ingredients. You can experiment with a lot different things, from regular minced meat, small-chunk vegetable to innovative pulled pork shoulder, Italian salami etc. Fried rice is for creative mind to improvise. Just don’t be afraid of trying new things.
Legend 72 