"You're Alice, aren't you?"
"Like Erina, you've changed a lot; I almost didn't recognize you."
Turning her gaze to the silver-haired short-haired girl next to Leonora, Mana Nagiri quickly knew who it was, and couldn't help but exclaim.
...
Things are unpredictable, life is impermanent.
Who would have thought that in just one evening, Mana Nagiri would reunite with her own biological daughter, sister-in-law, and niece.
"You... how have you been these years?"
Leonora asked with a complex feeling.
Her running away from home back then led to drastic changes throughout the entire Nakiri family, and some things are still regrettable to recall even now.
"It's a long story."
"When we have time, I'll tell you slowly."
Looking deeply at Leonora, Mana could only shake her head and sigh.
"You two really came at an inconvenient time; my Izakaya is about to close."
Just then, Sosuke actually took out a bottle of chilled plum wine and placed it in front of Leonora.
It seemed he deliberately wanted to break the melancholic atmosphere, then asked with a light laugh, "Now there's only some rice and eggs left. How about I just make you some egg fried rice?"
"Okay, as you wish."
Leonora nodded after regaining her composure.
"Alice, what about you?"
"Mother has no objections, I... I certainly have no problem either!" Alice quickly agreed.
"OK, then you two mother and daughter wait a moment."
After speaking, Sosuke returned to the cooking counter, ready to make the egg fried rice.
...
Behind every dish, there is actually a story of its own.
Take the simplest egg fried rice; the theories about its origin are particularly interesting.
Xie Feng, the imperial chef of Emperor Yang of Sui, recorded a kind of "Broken Gold Rice" in his work "Shi Jing."
The so-called "broken gold."
It describes the scrambled eggs mixed into the rice, each grain like gold.
It seems that whenever Yangzhou is mentioned, it is always inextricably linked with Emperor Yang of Sui.
When he destroyed the Southern Chen, he was the General of the three armies; before becoming crown prince, he was the Governor of Yangzhou; and later, the excavation of the Grand Canal, sitting on dragon boats, tasting crabs... every major event in his life had the imprint of Yangzhou behind it!
Of course, this also includes egg fried rice.
With the popularization of the steel-making method, the quality of steel smelting significantly improved at that time, and costs were further reduced.
In addition to creating famous military equipment in the history of cold weapons, such as "Mingguang Armor" and "Tang Modao," it also allowed iron woks with round bottoms, thin edges, fast heat conduction, and high stirring efficiency to become popular among the common people during the Sui Dynasty.
From then on, pan-frying, grilling, boiling, and steaming took a back seat in the Chinese cuisine system.
Stir-frying, which required higher technical content and more complex cooking utensils, gradually gained absolute dominance.
Especially for foods with very high starch content like rice, which are prone to sticking and burning, in an era without suitable cooking utensils, they could only be slowly handled by steaming and boiling.
But after the birth and popularization of the Chinese wok, stir-fried rice, with its hot oil, vigorous stir-frying, quick movements, perfect charring, and compelling wok hei, gained its technical foundation.
Therefore, to some extent.
The emergence of egg fried rice had epoch-making significance in the culinary world!
...
Even today, many people still love egg fried rice.
The reason for their liking is simply that this dish is very easy to make and the ingredients are particularly simple.
But no matter how this dish ultimately changes, it always involves eggs and rice, which then leads to a particularly interesting question:
Stir-fry the rice first, or stir-fry the eggs first?
And the answer to this question is: both are fine!
The only difference might be that if you stir-fry the eggs first, the egg liquid won't stick to the rice.
Of course, there's also a third scenario: mixing the egg liquid with the rice first, then stir-frying them together.
At this moment, Sosuke was preparing egg yolks, salt, green onions, and rice. He first mixed one-third of the egg liquid with the rice, and then stir-fried the remaining two-thirds separately.
Doing this ensures the golden color of the rice while also achieving the tenderness of the egg whites and the fragrance of the egg yolks, creating the best ratio for rice and eggs to complement each other.
Once the wok was heated over high flame, until it smoked, he quickly added an appropriate amount of oil.
Then he adjusted to medium heat and stir-fried slowly. When the aroma of the rice in the wok completely burst forth and filled the entire Izakaya, he quickly switched to low heat and poured in the egg liquid.
Continuing to stir-fry quickly over medium heat, slowly, the rice in the wok had already turned a golden color, very appealing.
Finally, he added salt and black pepper, stir-frying briefly.
He added green onions and stir-fried until they softened.
When the distinct sweet freshness of the green onions could be smelled, he turned the heat to maximum and stir-fried a few more times before serving!
...
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