Which pork product is best? (or Fried Rice Battle - East vs. West)

So it's 11 pm and I need a snack. I look in the fridge and what do I find? Two pieces of precooked bacon and leftover rice. So, "Western" fried rice it is. (Since egg and green onions are staples, they don't make the "ingredients" list)
As I'm making this, I can't help but feel like I've betrayed my roots. Fried rice is either made with SPAM (preferred) or BBQ pork (plan B). This makes the outcome all the more intriguing as I just can't wait to compare the two once and for all.

I was pleasantly surprised that I loved my Western Fried Rice just as much..if not more! The taste is different but still true to fried-riced-ness.

Recipe for Western Fried Rice (for one or 1.5 (mom and baby))

Ingredients:
1 C leftover rice
1 egg scrambled with splash of sesame oil, soy sauce, and white pepper (the chinese scrambled egg trifecta)
1 tbsp chopped green onions
2 pieces of chopped bacon (precooked)

Instructions:
Heat wok, put in onions and bacon, let sizzle 5 seconds. Add rice. Stir and mix well. Pour scrambled egg mixture around the rice mixture. Scramble and keep heat high. When well mixed, leave the rice/egg mixture to brown (on the bottom) to desired taste/texture. Serve hot!

In the end, who reigns supreme? Even though I love my Western, I would still have to say that Eastern FR(fried rice) is better, but only a true battle will tell... To Be Continued.

Home-fried Fish Fingers, Coleslaw, and KD

This was a cool summer night's fun and easy dinner with Ian.

We had such a good time making this together. He looked up the coleslaw vinaigrette while I fried the fish. Both taking turns stirring the KD.

Fish
2 pc of basa fillet
cornstarch
panko breadcrumbs
salt, pepper, garlic powder
oil for frying

Instructions:
1. Thaw and pat dry (obviously!). Cut up the fish t0 desired size (finger-size)
2. Season with salt and pepper
3. Whip up egg mixture and add desired amount of garlic powder - usually just a few generous sprinkles
4. Line up the fish, cornstarch, egg, and panko assembly line style
5. Heat and test the oil - should be on medium
6. Take each piece of fish, coat it with cornstarch, then egg wash, then panko. Tip: make sure you coat with panko well - no lilydipping hands! coat, press down, coat press down, and repeat until the whole thing is generally covered in a layer of panko
7. Test oil again by putting in a small piece of panko, see how it fries. If the piece is frying vigorously, great! If not, wait a little longer. The way this small piece of panko fries should be the way you want you fish to fry. Alternatively, you can fry a few piece of shrimp chips (this creates a nice little appetizer as well. A thing mom my used to do!) When ready, place fish pieces in oil gently. Note: make your fish in batches, fresh, if you pre-panko the fish, it may get soggy, so this may be a good time to get a second pair of hands, or if you're doing this all by yourself, make sure you alternate monitoring the coating process and watching your fried pieces so that nothing gets burnt and you're not left behind with no inventory.

Ok.. so the fish is NOTHING if it isn't paired with this amazing creamy dill dipping sauce:

1 tbsp mayo
splash of lemon juice
3 tbsp (the more the better) fresh chopped dill
2 grinds of the pepper mill

Mix together. Dip fish generously on service.

Ian made the coleslaw at the same time, so here it is.

Coleslaw dressing
1/4 Cup of Sugar
1/4 Cup of White Vinegar
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 Teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Toss with about 5 cups of other salad ingredients (cabbage, carrots and lettuce was in our salad) until well covered.

KD -- as per instructions on the box! No brainer! Actually you can also skip this as we found that our meal was actually quite large. Another bonus to not making the KD is that you may have more room for the fresh friend fish!!!

This recipe actually makes like 2 dinners.

Enjoy! I know WE did :).