Where was fried rice oringted from?

Answer 1

"Fried rice, which originated in Yanchow province, is a versatile dish which combines cooked rice, onions, soy sauce, sometimes eggs, and just about any other ingredient--leftover or fresh--that may be on hand. The ingredient that predominates gives the dish its name: chicken fried rice, roast pork fried rice, shrimp fried rice, etc. When any ingredients are included, the dish is called subgum--or "many varieties"--fried rice...The [American] restaurant convention of ordering a dish of fried rice with numerous other main courses, or ordering it place of white rice, is Western and not Chinese at all."

---The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cook Book, Gloria Bley Miller [Grosset & Dunlap:New York] 1975 (p. 632-3)

"Fried rice...is a standard method of cooking leftovers, involving frying cold boiled rice with chopped-up meat and vegetables. In really superior restaurants, rice weill be specially boiled and dried for this, but usually old, unused rice is served. The common (and favorite) recipe, however is not Cantonese, but eastern, deriving from Yonchou in the lower Yangtze country; it involved mixing chopped ham, beaten egg, green peas, green onions, and other ingredients to taste, and then rather slowly sauteing the rice. The rice is neither deep-fried nor stir-fried, but chin-left to cook slowly in a little oil, producing a fluffy product with a slight crust."

---Food of China, E.N. Anderson [Yale University Press:New Haven CT] 1988 (p. 212)

"Fried rice with Choice of Flavors. Chow Faan. There are more ways to make fried rice than I would care to count. Which is more authentically Chinese?...Fried rice, Chinese style, can be varied infinately by following a basic recipe and just changing the main ingredients used in conjunction with the rice. Roast pork, ham, chicken, or any type of seafood or preserved meats may be used."

---Jim Lee's Chinese Cook Book, Jim Lee [Harper Row:New York] 1968 (p. 272-3)