The foundational fried rice preparation — day-old jasmine or long-grain rice (Entry TH-13 and TH-21 principle: the overnight rice is essential), stir-fried with egg at maximum heat, seasoned with soy sauce and white pepper, finished with sesame oil and spring onion. Dan chao fan is the preparation that most directly tests the cook's wok technique — at its simplest, it requires only rice, egg, soy, and a hot wok, and the result reveals immediately whether the cook understands high heat, small batches, and the specific egg-and-rice integration technique.
**The rice:** Day-old rice, refrigerated overnight uncovered (Entry TH-21 principle). Before stir-frying: break up any clumps by hand. The grains should be individual, slightly dried on the surface. **The egg technique:** Two approaches: **Egg-first (preferred by Dunlop for home cooking):** 1. Scramble 2 eggs in the hot wok with a small amount of oil until almost set (still slightly wet at the centre). 2. Add the cold rice immediately to the semi-set egg. 3. Toss continuously — the egg coats the rice grains as it finishes setting. 4. Result: each rice grain coated in a thin layer of set egg. **Rice-first:** 1. Fry the rice in hot oil until the grains begin to separate and make a dry, slightly crackling sound. 2. Push to the side. 3. Add egg. Scramble. 4. Fold the rice over the partially set egg. The result is slightly different: larger pieces of egg distributed through the rice rather than each grain individually coated. **Seasoning:** Light soy sauce: added while the rice is still on the heat and tossed through. Dark soy sauce: a few drops for a more complex, amber-coloured result. White pepper: a generous amount — more than seems necessary. Sesame oil: added off heat. **Spring onion:** Added off heat with the sesame oil. Its fresh green note cuts through the richness of the egg and oil. Decisive moment: The crackling sound when the cold rice enters the hot wok — the indicator that the wok has maintained sufficient temperature and that the rice grains are frying rather than steaming (Entry TH-21 principle applies identically). From this sound onward: the tossing is continuous and the heat remains at maximum.
Fuchsia Dunlop, *Land of Plenty* (2001); *Every Grain of Rice* (2012); *Land of Fish and Rice* (2016); *The Food of Sichuan* (2019)