One Rice Dish that is most Memorable in my life

Before my husband and I moved to Singapore, we stayed in the downtown Yangon for about 6 months. My parents let us stay in a downtown apartment prior to settling down and becoming an independent newlywed couple.

As we started our new life, we did not struggle much thanks to our parents support. At that time, we earned a minimal income as my husband started working as a Junior Engineer in the service department of the  Small Electronic and Computer supply Company.

Some Fridays, we would visit the Shwe Dagon Pagoda simply to have a peaceful time instead of going to the movies.
We visited both our parents' homes in weekend spend time with them and Friday night was our simple outing in downtown Yangon.

On many occasions, we ate at small restaurants in downtown. Moments like these were simple, yet timeless. As we are also saving our hard-earned money, we ordered meals at a small Chinese restaurant nearby for a change instead of home cooking. I tried to make a similar dish at home, but sometimes homemade meals can't beat the flavor of a restaurant's high flame cooking.

From those lovely and joyful moments, the food that became our favorite dish is called "Hta Minn Paung" in Burmese, also known as Chop Suey from in most Chinese restaurants in the US. For his preference for authenticity, I added a few slices of char siew (BBQ pork) on top of the dish. Effectively making the dish more flavorful and complete.

Rice with Meat, Seafood and Vegetable Stir Fry Gravy

Rice with Meat, Seafood and Vegetable Stir Fry Gravy ( 2-3 serving)

Ingredients

1/4 lb      Thinly sliced pork or ground pork
5 count    Shrimp peeled and deveined
6 count    Fish balls frozen (thawed)
5 counts   Quail egg ( boiled and peeled)
1/2 cup    Sliced fried tofu
2 cups      Cauliflower (cut into small pieces)
2 cups      Broccoli cut small pieces
1 cups      Thick cut cabbage
1/2 cup     Snow pea ( cut out the stems)
1/2 cup     Sliced Bamboo shoot
1/2 cup     Sliced Carrot
2 tbsp       Chopped Chinese celery
1 tbsp       Fine chopped garlic
1 tsp         Fine chopped ginger
2 tbsp       Canola oil
1 tbsp       Light soy sauce
1 tbsp       Oyster sauce
1 tbsp       Sugar
3 cups      Chicken broth
1 cup        Water
2 tbsp       Cornstarch
Salt          To your own taste

Instructions

Prep 1.  Cook 2-3 cups of rice in the rice cooker by following the instructions.

Prep 2.  Cut up all the vegetable and meat preparation before start cooking. Everything prepared ingredients should be near the stove.



1. In the big stir fry pan with high heat, add oil and heat up then toss the shrimp for 2-3 mins just to get red color. Strain and set it aside in the separate bowl.

2. In the same stir fry pan, Add the seasoned meat (salt and pepper seasoned) and stir till it brown.

3. Then add the fine chopped garlic and ginger to the pan and stir.

4. When the garlic is fragrant, add Cabbage, Cauliflower and Carrot to the pan and stir .

5. After 5 minutes, add the rest of the ingredients (except cornstarch, water) into the pan and mix it thoroughly.

6. Mix the corn starch and water then add to the pan to make all gravy  thicken. Add salt and pepper to your own taste.

7. We may buy the BBQ pork from Chinese restaurants, to reduce half of the prep work.
    We need to warm up the bbq pork in the oven for 5-10 minutes and slice thinly before serving.

8. In the dinner plate, add a bowl of rice in the center. Place 4-5 slices of bbq pork on top of the rice and pour 1 cup of meat and vegetable stir fry on top of the rice.
Serve it warm .

(Note: We may choose to use Napa Cabbage instead of using cabbage.)
( Optional: We may also add other seafood such as scallop and squid to make fantastic seafood rich stir fry dish.)