On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 21:50:13 GMT, unge (Little
Malice) wrote:

One time on Usenet, blake murphy said:
On Tue, 03 Jul 2007 21:03:32 -0000, levelwave
wrote:

On Jul 3, 3:41 pm, Mitch Mitch@... wrote:

And it's not MSG. The places around here don't use it.
And I'd know if they lied because my friend would have an instant
migraine.

There's is nothing you can do at home to get "that taste". You don't
have the same equipment they do in your kitchen to replicate exactly
what they're serving you.

~john

i think this is the crux of the problem. fortunately, i like my fried
rice better than take-out.

your smug pal,
blake

I agree with you, Blake -- homemade fried rice is better that what
I can get around here. I do cheat and use the Sun Luck seasoning
packet, but at least my fried rice doesn't have bits of old BBQ
pork in it...

i wouldn't knock it for that reason, but it doesn't seem to have a lot
of flavor. mine is about half rice and half meat and vegetables, with
lots of ginger and black pepper. i don't think of it as a side dish.

your pal,
blake

On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 12:03:17 -0500, Steve Wertz
wrote:

On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:15:44 -0700, sf wrote:

On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 09:57:44 -0500, zxcvbob
wrote:

The wok needs to be hot enough to actually brown the rice a little
(tough to do at home)

Soy gives you that brown look.

You can marinate a raw steak in soy sauce and make it look
cooked, too.
Don't knock it until you've tried it. My fried rice *does* taste like
the real thing. Don't be heavy handed though. Just a few drops.

BTW: Soy seems to be one of the "secret" ingredients in carne asada
marinades around here too.
--

History is a vast early warning system
Norman Cousins

On Jul 3, 3:41 pm, Mitch Mitch@... wrote:
I can't seem to get "that taste."
Don't even know how to describe it.

My fried rice is good, but it's just not like takeout, which I love.

And it's not MSG. The places around here don't use it.
And I'd know if they lied because my friend would have an instant
migraine.

I'll post before reading the replies you've got. I don't think the
brown fried rice you can get in most Chinese restaurants is home-style
Chinese fried rice; it's American-Chinese. The brown color and the
taste -- which I used to naively assume derive from soy sauce -- come,
I today understand, from a kind of gravy.

Kyle wrote:

I'll post before reading the replies you've got. I don't think the
brown fried rice you can get in most Chinese restaurants is home-style
Chinese fried rice; it's American-Chinese. The brown color and the
taste -- which I used to naively assume derive from soy sauce -- come,
I today understand, from a kind of gravy.

I think if you use CHEAP soy sauce that is largely caramel
coloring you might get that effect.

Steve

On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 20:14:44 +0000 (UTC), (Steve
Pope) wrote:

Kyle wrote:

I'll post before reading the replies you've got. I don't think the
brown fried rice you can get in most Chinese restaurants is home-style
Chinese fried rice; it's American-Chinese. The brown color and the
taste -- which I used to naively assume derive from soy sauce -- come,
I today understand, from a kind of gravy.

I think if you use CHEAP soy sauce that is largely caramel
coloring you might get that effect.

Geeze Steve. Get your nose out of the air, bro. All chinese soy is
cheap. WTH do you expect them and us to do? Buy it from Surly Tab?

--

History is a vast early warning system
Norman Cousins

One time on Usenet, blake murphy said:
On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 21:50:13 GMT, unge (Little
Malice) wrote:

One time on Usenet, blake murphy said:
On Tue, 03 Jul 2007 21:03:32 -0000, levelwave
wrote:

On Jul 3, 3:41 pm, Mitch Mitch@... wrote:

And it's not MSG. The places around here don't use it.
And I'd know if they lied because my friend would have an instant
migraine.

There's is nothing you can do at home to get "that taste". You don't
have the same equipment they do in your kitchen to replicate exactly
what they're serving you.

~john

i think this is the crux of the problem. fortunately, i like my fried
rice better than take-out.

your smug pal,
blake

I agree with you, Blake -- homemade fried rice is better that what
I can get around here. I do cheat and use the Sun Luck seasoning
packet, but at least my fried rice doesn't have bits of old BBQ
pork in it...

i wouldn't knock it for that reason, but it doesn't seem to have a lot
of flavor. mine is about half rice and half meat and vegetables, with
lots of ginger and black pepper. i don't think of it as a side dish.

your pal,
blake

Neither do we -- I make mine with lots of green onion, shrimp, and
scrambled egg bits. Hearty stuff, yours sounds very nice... :-)

--
Jani in WA

In article , sf wrote:

On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 20:14:44 +0000 (UTC), (Steve
Pope) wrote:

Kyle wrote:

I'll post before reading the replies you've got. I don't think the
brown fried rice you can get in most Chinese restaurants is home-style
Chinese fried rice; it's American-Chinese. The brown color and the
taste -- which I used to naively assume derive from soy sauce -- come,
I today understand, from a kind of gravy.

I think if you use CHEAP soy sauce that is largely caramel
coloring you might get that effect.

Geeze Steve. Get your nose out of the air, bro. All chinese soy is
cheap.

Yes, but there's a pretty wide variation in taste that seems to run
along with cost. The "high-priced spread" really is worth the extra
money, IMO.

Try "Kimlan" brand if you can get it, and their "Super Special" label if
that's a choice.

The reason you can't do "take out" fried rice at home is because you
can't get the pan hot enough -- or more correctly, you can't *keep* it
hot enough after you've put the ingredients in it. Compare the burner on
your stove to the wok ring you can see in a Chinese cooking show on TV.

Isaac

On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 21:04:27 -0700, isw wrote:

In article , sf wrote:

On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 20:14:44 +0000 (UTC), (Steve
Pope) wrote:

Kyle wrote:

I'll post before reading the replies you've got. I don't think the
brown fried rice you can get in most Chinese restaurants is home-style
Chinese fried rice; it's American-Chinese. The brown color and the
taste -- which I used to naively assume derive from soy sauce -- come,
I today understand, from a kind of gravy.

I think if you use CHEAP soy sauce that is largely caramel
coloring you might get that effect.

Geeze Steve. Get your nose out of the air, bro. All chinese soy is
cheap.

Yes, but there's a pretty wide variation in taste that seems to run
along with cost. The "high-priced spread" really is worth the extra
money, IMO.

Try "Kimlan" brand if you can get it, and their "Super Special" label if
that's a choice.


i'm not steve, but he may be speaking of chun king or other soy sauces
which are not brewed and indeed have caramel and other crap in them.
(if you don't want to venture into an asian market, you can get
kikkoman in almost any grocery. it's japanese style, not chinese, but
the differences aren't that great if you're not a connoisseur. it
tastes good, and it's made in wisconsin, i think, for you sinophobes.)

your pal,
blake

Have you ever found two restaurants whose fried rice tasted
the same?


No, but I've never had one I didn't like. And they're all better than
mine!

There lies the single-most correct answer.

Thanks for all the great replies.

So, I have a great, seasoned wok.
My friend has a Viking stove...that sees heat maybe twice a week.

So assuming we had a seasoned wok and good heat...how about a recipe
to try to replicate this?