Chicken Fried Rice

As a child, even though I have been a foodie, my exposure to various cuisines were limited. We ate mostly home-cooked meals and my father would buy food from restaurants once in a while, and that would either be Biriyani or Porotta chicken. Nothing else. We also ate out very rarely, not because my parents couldn't afford it, but, my father didn't encourage eating out. 

Things are different now, we have plenty of restaurants and cafes around, and could order in, thanks to online delivery apps. Anyway, that's not what this blog is about. 

I was thinking of the time when I first had fried rice in my life - ofcourse, the Indo-Chinese one and it was indeed a funny story. 

I think I would have been in 7th grade and my classmates and I were discussing what we did during that vacation. For me, it would have been, as always, a 2-3 days stay at my maternal Grandma's place and nothing else, so had little to share, but other girls (it was a convent school) had too many stories to share. And one girl mentioned about going for a movie or something and her father buying her "Chicken Fried Rice" after. I was intrigued. 

What's chicken fried rice, I ask. Something very tasty, she responds. 

Do you fry your rice, like chicken fry? I ask again. 

No, it's not fried in that sense, she answers. 

So, wouldn't it be dry? What would you have it with? I ask again.

You pair it with chilly chicken, she responds. 

What if I want a veg fried rice? I am still intrigued.

Never tried, but may be, you serve it with Sambar, she ponders. 

So that day, upon reaching home, I ask my father to buy me chicken fried rice. My father, oblivious of what that thing is, rejects the idea...

I throw tantrums. And my father finally gave in. Since it was a bit of a task to convince, I never mention the chilly chicken. 

Next day for lunch, he buys fried rice for all of us. 

You can imagine a 12 yo's excitement right? 

I put one whole fried rice onto my plate and take a bite. I spit it out. It certainly was the worst thing I had put into my mouth until that day. And I didn't touch it again. My father was furious. I blamed him for buying something that's not fried rice. 

To be honest, until, probably last year, I wouldn't dare buy chicken or mixed fried rice even when I could buy it myself. I would always buy veg fried rice along with some meat side dish, that's how I enjoyed a fried rice. 

Now, I am finally accustomed to that taste, but I still remember the disappointment my entire family had when we are fried rice for the first time. 

Same story goes with Maggi. My cousins and I fought our parents to get us maggi and when they did, we hated it. All of us. :)

So yeah, that's that.