With fried rice, options abound

Many cultures have a catch-all dish to make use of leftovers. Ravioli and pizza serve this function in the Italian kitchen, though nowadays these are more often store-bought than homemade. In Chinese cooking, fried rice is an everyday dish that reinvigorates old rice and leftover meat and vegetables. But fried rice, along with noodles, also traditionally marks the close of a banquet of nine or more courses.

Part of the dish's popularity has to do with the presence of rice in the Chinese diet, says Paul Lee, manager of Hong Kong Eatery's Quincy location. "No matter if you're poor, or if you're rich, you eat rice."

Popular garnishes include Chinese sausage or roast pork. Families who don't have easy access to Chinese delis with their air-dried birds and sides of pork also make use of more mainstream American supermarket meats -- like hot dogs or kielbasa. Shrimp, frozen peas, snow peas, and cheap, crunchy iceberg lettuce are other popular ingredients, Lee says. At home, he adds "chicken essence," a bouillon-like powder that "comes in a jar," for flavor.

Hong Kong Eatery focuses on authentic Cantonese dishes. The fried rice with cubed chicken and dried salted fish is a crowd-pleaser, though crab fried rice is also on the menu. That's a fancier dish than most home cooks would probably attempt, featuring a whole Dungeness crab quick-fried and then steamed on top of fried rice with egg and lettuce.

Most Chinese families will have rice around at some point during the week. "Fried rice is extremely easy to make," says Lee. "The ingredients don't matter. It just can't be too soggy." The restaurant sticks to seasoning with salt, and yes, a dash of MSG. "Cantonese fried rice is all white rice," says the restaurant manager. "For the American style, "it's brown rice."

Home cooktops probably can't attain the high heat of a restaurant range, which is the key to success, Lee says. Before stir-frying, make sure the rice isn't hot; excess moisture will doom the grains to stick to the pan. Lee also recommends using long-grain white rice, which is drier than shorter-grain varieties. -- KIMBERLY MOY