Italian Fried Rice

There was Bite of Seattle this weekend at Seattle Center, so we checked it out with a few of our friends. I'm always excited about this event, but every year, I seem to remember that it wasn't that exciting. For those of you that don't know, this event just has lots of food booths from various restaurants in Seattle. You can try tasting lots of different foods, but every year we end up eating the simlilar thing, instead of being bold and try something unique like an alligator on a stick. This year I tried spicy BBQ pork sandwich and collard green, which was pretty good.

Speaking of unique food, here's a dish that sounds interesting. In Japan, a lot of little cafe offer this dish as chicken rice. You usually find this inside an egg omlet in Japan (called Omu-rice). I never had any particular name for this dish, but for this post, I decided to call it Italian Fried Rice. My wife was completely against the idea since there is nothing Italian about it, other than that I use a little of garlic and ketchup. But I think Italian fried rice sounds more appetizing than ketchup rice.

IN JAPANESE: Chicken Rice
CATEGORY: Rice/Noodles
COOKING METHOD: Stir-fry
DIFFICULTY: Medium
SERVES: 2 people
LENGTH OF TIME: 15 min

INGREDIENTS:
2 bowls of rice (leftover would be better as opposed to freshly made)
your choice of meat (chicken, bacon, ham, etc) cut in tiny pieces
1 clove of garlic chopped finely
1 TBsp of vegetable oil (omit if you are using bacon)
1 egg
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 cup of frozen vegetable
1/4 onion chopped finely
1/2 cube of chicken bouillon
1 teaspoon of butter
4 TBsp of ketchup

HOW TO:
On a heated wok, pour a table spoon of vegetable oil. When the oil is well heated, add the finely chopped garlic, and let the garlic flavor soak into the oil. Then cook your choice of meat along with the onion.

After your choice of meat and onion are mostly cooked, add 1/2 cup of frozen vegetable. While that is being cooked, beat the egg with the sugar in a separate bowl. When the vegetables are mostly cooked push them to one side of the wok, and scramble the egg on the open side of the wok.

When is egg is fully cooked, mix that with the rest of the stuff in the wok, and add the rice, and 1 teaspoon of butter, and a 1/2 cube of chicken bouillon powder (be sure to smash that into tiny pieces and sprinkle them over evently).

After everything is mixed fairly evenly add the ketchup until everything is evenly red.