I ate at Three Harmony Chinese Restaurant in Uptown on Tuesday, May 28, 2019, at 4:49 p.m. When I arrived at the restaurant, I walked over to the counter and ordered the large beef fried rice and about 20 packets of sweet and sour sauce as I usually do when I go there. I bought so many packets of sauce because I use some use of them and keep the rest to have at home. I also bought some soy sauce packets for my homemade rice. I asked the cashier, the daughter of the chefs, are their ingredients fresh and organic. She responded that their meats are from a supermarket where meats from all over the world are shipped and some of their vegetables come from grocery stores like Jewel Osco and Whole Foods. I also asked for some tips on making beef fried rice and the difference between homemade and restaurant cooked beef fried rice. She then told me that the main thing I needed to worry about was to make sure I have a high fire on when I fried the ingredients. She also told me that the recipe used to make the rice in the restaurant is a family owned recipe, therefore she couldn’t help me with the ingredients.
N.L. (2019) “Three Harmony”
Restaurant Cooked Beef Fried Rice Greasy, chewy, cheap and tasty. These are some of the adjectives I used to describe my order of a large beef fried rice. The rice was filled in a box with grease. Three Harmony Chinese Restaurant is a popular restaurant in Uptown and I have been going there for about 4 years now. I pretty much knew what to expect when it came to the beef fried rice. Authentic Chinese food for a reasonable and cheap price. The large beef
fried rice and sweet and sour packets in total cost me $9.60, taxes included. The main four ingredients I looked for in beef fried rice were the beef, rice, onions, and egg. Other restaurants include vegetables such as peas and carrots. But Three Harmony doesn’t add peas or carrots to dishes such as beef, chicken, or shrimp fried rice unless you add them Here are some pictures of the beef fried rice.
N.L. (2019) Three Harmony Beef Fried Rice
N.L. (2019) Three Harmony Beef Fried Rice
Here are my thoughts on the beef fried rice: Beef: The stir-fried caramelized flank steak used in the beef fried rice tasted as if it were seasoned and sauteed with onions, garlic, salt, and pepper. It also felt chewy and tender in my mouth. Fried Rice: The fried rice felt fried to a crisp, in a good way with just the right texture to chew. I could also smell the aroma from the soy sauces and sesame oil used to fry the rice. Green Onions and Scallions: The green onions and scallions where caramelized just as the steak. They were soaked in oil from the pan all the ingredients were fried in. The onions provided flavor for the steak and rice.
Eggs: The beaten toasted egg within the rice tasted like scrambled eggs. The taste of the egg didn’t affect my liking of the dish. The soy sauce and onions used to saute the egg gave it a pungent smell.
N.L. (2019) Sweet and Sour Sauce
EXTRA One extra I love to add to beef fried rice is sweet and sour sauce. I have been doing this with many Asian dishes since I was at least 5 or 6 years old. Sweet and Sour Sauce: The sweet and sour sauce gave the rice a tangy and sweet flavor. When the sweet and sour sauce was cooled, it helped when eating fresh cooked fried rice right out of the pan. The beef fried rice was fine on its own but the sweet and sour sauce complements the beef fried rice. It brought out the missing flavors of tangy and sour which completed the dish.
Dish Overall Overall the dish was flavorsome but could have been better in different areas such as the seasoning of the meat and eggs. The presentation of the rice wasn’t meant to be good but still turned out to be pleasing to my eye when I received the beef fried rice. As soon as I opened the box, I felt the warmth of the fried rice, beef, egg, and onions. The rice came out of the box in the shape of the box it was in. I found that disturbing in a way because the dish came in the shape of a rectangular prism of rice, meat, and vegetables. The rice was fried perfectly with skill and increased my liking of the dish. The dish tasted savory, sweet, sour, salty, and pungent. It sounded like it was sizzling before I ate it and was sizzling a little while eating it. The ingredients in the dish such as the green and white onions appeared kind of fresh and industrialized. I know this because, at the restaurant, I stood at the counter and watch the chef add in each ingredient which came from a refrigerator.
Homemade Beef Fried Rice The best adjectives to describe my homemade beef fried rice are juicy, delicious, savory, and hearty. I got the recipe for my beef fried rice from a blog called The Works of Life. The recipe serves four to six people, but I substituted some of the ingredients to serve two people. I purchased the steak/beef, rice, and green onions and scallions from Mariano’s grocery store. I asked the butcher if the meat was organic and where it came from but they didn’t have any answers. I cooked and ate my homemade meal on Wednesday, May 29, 2019, around 7:30 pm. I didn’t have anyone help me prepare or cook my meal because I knew I would do a great job on the meal by myself.
Ingredient List ● 8 oz. of Flank Steak ($3.13) ● 1 organic green onions ($1.29) ● 8 soy sauce packets ($0.40) ● Corn Starch ● Salt ● Pepper ● Medium Grain Rice ($1.00) ● 3 Eggs (Beaten) Total = $6.42 (Taxes included)
N.L. (2019) “Ingredients for Beef Fried Rice”
N.L. (2019) “Finished Cooking Beef Fried Rice”
Flank Steak: The marinated flank steak was very savory, tender, and juicy. It also smelled like sweet. I used cornstarch, soy sauce, sugar, salt, and water to marinate the steak. Fried Rice: The rice was chewy and hearty. It was also fried pretty well in my opinion. Adding the marinated steak to the rice and frying both ingredients at the same time infused the rice with a savory and buttery taste. Green Onions and Scallions: I fried some of the green onions and scallions and added some fresh green onions and scallions the fried rice. The fresh and fried onions and scallions infused the rice an acidic taste. Egg: The delicate and tender egg really stood out in the dish. I seasoned the egg with salt, pepper, and a hint of soy sauce.
Dish Overall The dish looked brown and tan-ish and was savory, chewy, sticky, and moist. The brown rice in a bowl with caramelized flank steak, green onions, and it smelled like sauteed onions and stir-fried marinated beef. The dish sounded sizzling and moist before and after eating the dish. The dish tastes sweet, savory, salty, and sour. My homemade beef fried rice didn’t require any extra condiments such as sweet and sour sauce because the dish was enhanced in flavors by the marinated succulent steak. The dish appears fresh because of the onions and scallions and the rice. I know this because the onions and rice were bought from a local grocery store. The steak and soy sauce appears industrial. I know this because when I bought the steak from Mariano's grocery store, the flank steak was boneless. The soy sauce was also pre-packaged.
This experience relates to Michael Pollan’s food transformations of “Food Culture to Food Science” and “Complex to Simple”. This experience relates to the food transformation of Food Culture to Food Science because this dish was authentically made and served in a Chinese owned restaurant, but I made the same dish at home by using a step by step recipe. The dish is not authentic to my culture but is authentic to the culture of the people who cook the dish in the restaurant. This experience relates to the food transformation of Complex to Simple because the authentic and complicated way of making this dish in a wok pan, which has evolved over centuries, has been simplified to many online “homemade” recipes of this dish where the dish is cooked in modern skillets today.
I observed evidence of the food transformation of “Quality to Quantity” between the two dishes. Even though Michael Pollan observed “Quality to Quantity” as the quality of foods being decreased for higher production of foods; this restaurant focuses on the quality of their food rather than the quantity. The family recipe used in the restaurant represents quality because the recipe hasn’t been changed in order to serve more customers for a profit. The chefs care about the food they serve to their customers.
Nutrition Label In our class Food For Thought, we learned about food and nutrition labels. As all things do, nutrition labels have changed over time in the U.S. Some major changes you will see in the picture are that the calories per serving have been increased in size and the daily percentages have been categorized in one place on the label. Food labels such as non-GMO, USDA Organic, Free Ranged, or Certified Organic are some food labels that you might see in your local grocery store.
N.L. (2019) “Rice’s Nutrition Label”
N.L. (2019) “Enriched Medium Grain Rice”
Here is the nutrition label of the medium grain rice which was used in my homemade beef fried rice. On the package and labeling of the rice, it claims to be Non-GMO and Certified Gluten-Free. Those two labels are popular in grocery stores such as Whole Foods. It claims that it is not genetically modified but doesn’t really show proof of not being a non-GMO product. The rice’s ingredient list consists of ingredients such as Niacin, Thiamine, Folic Acid, and Iron. I know that Niacin or vitamin B3 is safe to consume, but Niacin deficiency causes pellagra.
Comparison
N.L. (2019) Three Harmony Beef Fried Rice
N.L. (2019) Homemade Beef Fried Rice
I preferred my homemade beef fried rice over the restaurant cooked beef fried rice because this was my first time cooking this dish and I feel that I did a good job on the dish. I enjoyed cooking the dish and also tasting the outcome of my cooking. The most obvious difference between the two dishes is that one was homemade by me and one was cooked in a restaurant by a chef. The biggest differences between the two dishes are that my homemade rice tasted sweeter and more savory and the rice was softer and more sticky than the restaurant cooked beef fried rice. You could also see the egg used in my rice clearly, unlike the restaurant’s rice. I recommend that you eat the restaurant cooked beef fried rice because the recipe used in the restaurant was a family owned recipe and was slightly different from mine. The restaurant cooked dish was also cooked with a very high fire which made a noticeable impact on the dish. Those ingredients missing from my recipe could have made a big difference in the taste of the dish as a whole. Even though I saved money cooking the dish at home, the dish wasn’t the same quality compared to the restaurant cooked dish. I still recommend the restaurants’ beef fried rice which has been made for a very long time.