Fried Rice Escapades and other Stories

Was at Andrew's place making fried rice for the gathering yesterday, and because it was late at night and I was tired, was frying the rice in batches of three cups per batch and using all his condiments (fine word!) without really knowing what they were. So I was on the phone with Julee, having already seasoned two batches of eggs and rice with a fine white powder in a little blue container that looked for all the world like very innocent salt.

I'd tasted the first two batches and wondered why they seemed a little sweet, and I thought to myself that the five-spice powder I'd been using was very strong or that I'd used too much of it, and that it'd made the rice sweet. I was pretty amazed at the efficacy of the five-spice powder.

So half-onthephonewithJulee and half-stirringtherice I suddenly got it into my head to smell the "salt" and realised that it didn't smell anything like salt at all. It smelt, in fact, like sugar.

And then I burst into loud cackles and told Julee that the first two batches of egg and rice were seasoned with sugar. We didn't breathe a word to the rest of the people who ate it though, except Sunny, Jean, Daniel, Andrew, and Katie... oops... that's alot of people isn't it?

This is the kind of thing you only read about in books but which happens to me on a regular basis.