The Best Hawaiian Fried Rice Recipes.
Hawaii kitchen rundown · Fried rice
Five fried rices cover the Hawaii canon. The technique is the same; the protein is the variable that names the dish.
5 PICKS · CURATED BY CURTISJ
Hawaii fried rice is its own genre, distinct from Cantonese fried rice and from generic American Chinese fried rice. The technique is consistent: cold day-old rice, a hot pan, a salty-fatty protein that renders enough fat to coat the grains, shoyu drizzled around the edge of the pan so it caramelizes against the metal before it reaches the rice. That last detail is the wok-hei (breath of the wok) flavor that mainland fried rice usually misses.
What changes between the five Hawaii fried rices is the protein. Spam (the most common). Lup cheong, the Chinese-Hawaiian sweet sausage. Kalua, the leftover-from-yesterday move. Kim chi, the Korean-Hawaiian breakfast. Or the technique flipped inside-out as a fried-rice omelette. Cook each once and the technique becomes second nature.
The icon
Spam Fried Rice: Hawaii's Most Honest Breakfast
Diced Spam, cold rice, scrambled egg, green onion, shoyu around the edge. The 12-minute Hawaii breakfast standard, on every drive-in menu in Honolulu. Furikake at the end seals it.
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Chinese-Hawaiian
Lup Cheong Fried Rice: Hawaii's Chinese-Plantation Breakfast
Sweet Chinese sausage sliced on a bias, rendered in a dry hot pan, tossed with cold rice. The Chinese-Hawaiian contribution to the breakfast canon — sweeter and more aromatic than the Spam version.
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The morning-after move
Kalua Fried Rice: The Morning-After Move
The dish you make when you have leftover kalua pig in the fridge. Smoky, salty, with shredded cabbage cooked into the pan. The fried egg on top is mandatory.
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Korean-Hawaiian
Kim Chi Fried Rice: Hawaii's Korean-Hawaiian Hangover Breakfast
Aged kim chi cooked into rendered fat, then tossed with cold rice. Pink-tinged, tangy, spicier than the others. The Saturday breakfast for cooks who keep Korean groceries in the rotation.
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The flip
Local Style Fried Rice Omelette – Island Breakfast Fusion
Fried rice tucked inside a wide soft omelette, finished with ketchup or shoyu over the top. The Hawaii-Japanese breakfast-cafe move; cleaner presentation than a stir-fried plate, same flavors.
Read the recipe →Cook each of the five over a month and the fried-rice technique becomes muscle memory. After that, any leftover protein is a fried rice.
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