Simple Chinese Egg Fried Rice Recipe

Who says Chinese is all meat and noodles?  Here’s a recipe that can make even the meat eaters drool. Enriched with fresh carrots, peas and a small helping of scrambled eggs, this rice dish is easy to make and yummy to eat! Scroll down, grab your pen and jot down the recipe for this simple, yet tasty dish.

Serves: 4

Cooking Time: 15 min

What you’ll Need:

• 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 (16-ounce) package frozen peas and carrots, thawed
• 3 cups cold cooked rice
• 1/4 cup soy sauce

What to Do:

1. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil. Add eggs and scramble, then break up scrambled eggs into small pieces. Remove from skillet and set aside.
    
2. Heat remaining oil in skillet; add peas and carrots and cook 3 minutes. Add rice and soy sauce and cook 3 to 5 minutes, or until heated through, stirring frequently. Stir in scrambled egg pieces and cook 1 to 2 additional minutes, or until heated through. Serve immediately.

Let's go Chinese!

To all you foodies out there, welcome and Gong Hei Fat Choi (Happy New Year!!) 

With the Chinese New Year up and coming, we thought it would be best to indulge in some Chinese flavours for the week. For the next few days we will unravel the mystery and secret behind traditional Chinese recipes that will leave you asking for more.

Chinese New Year traditionally represents a family re-union with every family spending a good feast on the table with their near and dear ones. This blog will be a sneak peek into all those delicacies on the table like the rice cakes, dumplings, Sweet glutinous rice balls, whole duck, noodles, candied lotus seeds and many more!

Watch this space for some yummy, flavorsome and delicious Chinese food that can set your taste buds tickling for some yummy Cantonese food.

DISCOVER AHOY! ASIA WITH OPERA SOFTWARE

Grimod de la Reynière, a famous Parisian restaurant reviewer in the 18^th century, once said, “The kitchen is a country in which there are always discoveries to be made.” And well said, since the journey of cooking involves discoveries that are made with every stir. With a passion for food and the willingness to experiment, each time they are mixed in different proportions, a new dish is discovered. And, the exploration of new ingredients, recipes and presentation just adds to the culinary romance.

Discover Food

Along the “discover” theme, Opera Software organized a #DiscoverWithOpera food bloggers meet-up, inviting some of Delhi’s top food bloggers at Ahoy! Asia, one of Delhi’s brand-new Oriental restaurants. Ahoy! was started by friends, Arun Chanda and Satayajit Mukherjee, whose passion for food and experience in the food & beverage industry is reflected in the variety in the menu and the service at the place.

Arun Chanda welcoming food bloggers at Ahoy! Asia 

Just like Opera users set out to discover content on the web, food bloggers were given the opportunity to embark on a journey of Oriental food discovery. The afternoon was well spent, with bloggers passing the test of identifying various cuisines including Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Malaysian. According to Arun, “We are here to give everyone an unforgettable Oriental food experience with a great fusion between classic and modern techniques of cooking that is well suited for the local palette. Our main focus was to have a fun family eating-out place with excellent value for money.” Along with an afternoon of fun-filled activities, the bloggers were also quizzed on Asian cuisine, and Arun was successful in busting some popular myths often associated with the cuisine.

Japanese cuisine Okonomiyaki

Talking about Opera’s “Discover” feature, Sunil also added, “Opera gives an opportunity to users to get hot, new content with no browsing necessary, thanks to the new ‘Discover’ feature available on Opera for Android and Opera for Windows & Mac.” The feature allows you to lean back and be fed with new articles from your country, or whatever region you want to get inspiration from, right in your browser — all in one place. Users can pick and choose their category: News, Food, Technology or anything else that interests them. Just sit back, click and discover something completely new.

Read latest food news on Opera Discover feature

The bloggers also got a chance to try out some of popular Oriental dishes including Chuanr Lamb Kebab from Uyghur, Thai Tofu & Bell Pepper Satay, Uyghur DaPanJi (chicken stew), Zhua Fan Lamb Pulao and Banana Spring Rolls with a vanilla ice-cream scoop & caramel sauce.

The popular restaurant in the GK II market is the perfect place for letting your hair down and trying out some lip-smacking dishes. One of the things to watch is Uyghur cuisine from the Xinjiang region of China, which is a rare amalgamation of Islamic and traditional Chinese culinary influence!

Vietnamese Chicken Banhmi Sandwich

Event at a glance:

Opera Browser- Made to Discover

Ahoy! Asia prepped for #DiscoverWithOpera Food Bloggers Meet

Ahoy! Asia ready for a delicious afternoon with Opera Software

Enjoying oriental tea

Sunil Kamath, Vice-President for South Asia, Opera Software welcoming the bloggers

Discover the ingredients

What's going on in the mind- Cabbage, cheese and ???

Japanese Chicken Yakitori

Korean Mandupi Chips

Relishing the food at Ahoy! Asia

Sunil Kamath, V.P for South Asia, Opera Software explains tech 

Tangjiao Uyghur style lamb dumplings soup

Banana Spring Rolls with vanilla scoop & caramel sauce

Say O

Bite into this #DiscoverWithOpera contest now!

Did you know egg white can be used for treating burned skin? Or that ‘Okonomiyaki’ is the name of a Japanese savory pancake that is made of a variety of ingredients? As disparate as they are, both the facts mentioned above are food related discoveries that amazed us.

Opera Software, who enables more than 350 million internet consumers worldwide to discover and connect with the content and services that matter most to them, are in similar mood, and hence are today announcing the launch of the #DiscoverWithOpera contest for testing your gastronomical knowledge.

To enter this contest, you’re urged to share your food related discoveries – which maybe an innovative recipe you made or discovered, or a mixture of ingredients you never realized could produce an outstanding result or a restaurant at some corner of your city that serves some sumptuous food. Share these discoveries on Facebook or Twitter, but it’s essential you use #DiscoverWithOpera in them. Other details are enclosed below:

Terms & Conditions:

•       All tweets & comments need to be accompanied with #DiscoverWithOpera

•       Contest begins on 8th Jan at 12pm and closes on the midnight of 15^th Jan 2014

•       Contest open only for Indian residents

•       Top 10 people, with the most creative &/ or interesting discovered will win cool Opera merchandize

•       Top 5 of these people will also win vouchers worth Rs1500/- from a restaurant in your city. For e.g. in Delhi, our vouchers will be from the newest Oriental restaurant in town - Ahoy! Asia

Food that helps you recover from common cold & cough

The chilly wind has arrived and is here to stay for the next three months. And generally, winters are the time when you love to hog on hot steamy food. Bud did you know, our Indian food, or to be a little more specific Indian spices is not just tasty but have a lot of medicinal value which is much needed specially, to help you escape the usual viral fever, cold and cough.

So these are the top 10 must have’s to get over this seasonal fever which is catching up:

Ginger Tea

Medicinal Value: Ginger is an excellent remedy for the common cold. Ginger tea can be taken thrice daily, along with half a teaspoon of sugar for best results. It helps drying up a running nose and expels phlegm from the respiratory tract

Turmeric Milk

Medicinal Value: Turmeric mixture is a popular and effective way to fight a cough

Lemon, Cinnamon, Honey Syrup

Medicinal value: Prepare syrup of lemon, honey and cinnamon to prevent a common cold

Honey and Brandy

Medicinal value: Brandy keeps your chest warm while honey helps fight a cough. A teaspoon of brandy and honey improves cough 

Garlic

Medicinal value: Saute a few garlic cloves in ghee and consume this, it can help you fight the common cold and cough

Jaggery Solution

Medicinal Value: Boil water with black pepper, add cumin and jaggery to it to get relief from chest congestion

Carrot juice

Medicinal Value: Carrot juice, not only tastes yummy but is an excellent drink which helps to fight a bad cough

- Preeti Nair, Contributing Author

Pizza Hut ‘All You Can Eat Challenge’ experience

By now we’re sure all foodies already know that Pizza Hut’s started an ‘Unlimited Pizza Party’ offer where you can eat unlimited pizzas for Rs199/- only! To be more precise, in an offer running from 16^th September to 20^th October, consumers at Pizza Hut can have unlimited veg pizzas for Rs199 per person and non-veg pizzas for Rs299 per person. The offer is available across all 7 days of the week, during lunch and dinner, at all their outlets across the country.

And obviously like every brand would and should promote their offers, Pizza Hut’s also doing the same. They’ve rolled out TVC’s, sent direct mailers and even did a tweet-a-thon contest on Twitter.

But one stand out thing we’re reporting via this post is the ‘All You Can Eat Challenge’ that Pizza Hut hosted on 5^th October. It was a showdown between 2 teams, with ample food enthusiasts in it. One was the team from Chef At Large, and the other team FOODATHON! Both teams, comprising of 4 members each, were given 30mins to eat as many slices of pizzas possible.

One by one, we managed to gulp 38 slices in 30mins, but were still defeated by team Chef At Large, who ate 41slices! Hats off to everyone on both the teams! I mean seriously! We eat fresh and hot pizzas, straight from the oven, with oodles of cheese on it and how! If you do the math, both teams respectively ate little more than 1 pizza slice every minute! That has to some record - if not a world or India record; maybe a south Delhi record!

More seriously, it was a fun event. It reintroduced Pizza Hut to most people on our team, as we mostly get cozy either with lounges or coffee shops! Personally, I had visited this same Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, Pizza Hut outlet, around 2-3years back and had a good experience. But I still never returned until now.

The pizzas too were great. They’ve always have been. The crust for me personally is a winner against Dominos, but still whenever you think of ordering pizzas, Dominos is the name that first comes to your mind.

Look forward to more such events from Pizza Hut!

- Karan Bhujbal, Contributing Author

P.S. Sadly, we couldn't take any pictures while we were eating, as we were too busy eating. 

What does drinking wine mean in different countries?

The topic of my blog does not indicate my addiction to drinking J but just a thought that meandered in my mind after I got the privilege of attending a bureaucrat party yesterday with my close relative.  Men in neatly ironed suits, expensive watches around their wrists and women clad in cocktail dresses with their shining diamond earring walked past me but what caught my attention is the beautiful sleek glass with red and golden colored liquid that depicted India’s growing cosmopolitan culture. The curious cat in me could not rest, so I wondered Is drinking wine just a formality or there’s more to it which led to me researching on the wine culture across the globe and what I learnt is a much wider perspective on my subject.

History of wine spans thousands of years and is closely intertwined with the history of agriculture, cuisine, civilization and humanity itself.Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest known wine production occurred in what is now known as  the country of   Iran around 7000 BC and today every nation has its own concept of wine drinking.

A symbol of wealth and being cultured in CHINA

In China, drinking wine has become a sign of being cultured and of wealth. Red and white wine is often served chilled in small quantities and in a Chinese banquet, it’s not unusual for someone to propose a toast in the traditional form of gan bei where a whole glass could be finished at once. 

Completes the meal in FRANCE

France is the biggest wine producers in the world and therefore it is regarded customary to drink wine in France. Wine is considered to be healthy for the heart in addition to being a great way to accompany a meal! French take sweet white wine with white meats and dry red wine with red meat.

Nourishment for the ITALIANS

Wine drinking is an important aspect of the Italian culture. Considered as nourishment to the Italians, it was used often as a supplement to the diet of the lower classes that needed additional calories, which were provided by the wine. Among youth in Italy, males drink more often than females, and wine is most often drunk at home with the family.

Social Affair in Spain

In Spain, many consider meals to be incomplete without wine. Spain believes in “proper drinking” wherein a person knows when and how to drink. The country is known for its bar culture and therefore drinking too becomes a social affair.

Country of women winers-Germany

Due to the northerly location of the German vineyards, the country has produced outstanding quality wines. Wine is the second most popular drink in the country after beer. In Germany, women drink more wine as compared to men who prefer beer over wine.

Whether it’s a family or a social affair, the importance of wine has evolved over time and across the globe it has different importance, changing from an important source of nutrition to a cultural complement to food and a healthy lifestyle. 

-Preeti Nair, Contributing author