Me & My Favourite Dish Against the World! (Of Inflation)
Introduction
You’re working from home and want to whip up something fuss free that isn’t instant noodles (again) because… you care about your receding hairline. So you entertain the idea of ordering food but you look at the price and… nope. It’s still a while till pay day. So what do you do now? You can’t skip lunch again!
Call it basic but my quick fix is… a bowl of rice complete with a golden fried egg on top.
Personally I like mine with a little splash of kicap manis (sweet soya sauce). I’ve also seen famous TikTok Chilli Oil Eggs recipes, where it’s only acceptable to have the eggs a little bit charred.
This got me thinking as I nosh through my own bowl… why do I feel like I’ve seen this rice & egg combination is THE ultimate food combination that cannot go wrong?
Around The World in… Eggs
It’s amazing how this humble dish pairs with so many different combinations of food and still manages to taste good.
The umami goodness is thanks to the glutamates in the egg, an amino acid, found in all protein-containing foods. It’s basically MSG that’s naturally present in eggs. So when in doubt, put an egg on it! ← also an eggcellent reddit community if you are an egg aficionado.
I usually grab eggs during my grocery runs in case I ever need to whip up my struggle meal midweek.
In my list of rice & egg dishes, 6 out of 13 recipes make full use of leftovers. Rice and egg by itself hits the spot for me BUT adding rice and eggs to leftovers that would have otherwise been thrown away as garbage? Yay me for reducing my food wastage!
An Economic Choice?
My favourite cheap protein isn’t spared from the 8.2% inflation though. 30 eggs in February 2022 cost $6.15 compared to just $4.65 a year before…
Comparatively, meat would have increased by 13% while eggs by 24%… makes me rethink if I even need that egg on my fried rice after all.
Which brings me to the next question — is my struggle meal recession-proof?
Let’s compare the cost of this rice & egg dish against a Big Mac using this index.
This tells me that I can eat about 3 struggle meals in place of a burger (probably isn’t too good for my thighs anyway). So… yeah, this dish is number one in my books because of economic reasons here in Singapore.
Growing up in an Asian household, it felt surreal to go a day without eating rice, and it was seen as a staple or even gospel. But with the changing human palettes due to fad diets such as the ketogenic diet, carbs are seen as the enemy. There was a moment growing up where I would order my cai fan without “fan” (rice). Not too proud of that... But I guess I’m not the only one!
In Asia, we’re known to consume and produce about 80% of rice globally. Which is alarming when you consider the fact that our consumption is dropping.
It’s ironic how even Japan’s appetite for rice has decreased (what?). Its consumption has fallen from 64.9kg per capita in 2005 to 54.4kg in 2015, and is projected to reach 49 kg by 2025. This is due to consumers substituting rice with higher quality foods containing more protein and vitamins.
But despite all this… I stan(d) by my egg-and-cai fan combo. The other dishes (like fried cabbage and sweet and sour pork) are just support acts to the main star.
Conclusion
Okay I’m not going to eat rice and egg for the rest of my life but I know whenever I’ve exhausted my pay or even crave a little slice of childhood, I can always whip up a fuss free dish in no time. Simple, inexpensive and most importantly, DELICIOUS.
I’m no chef but this recipe hits the spot. You might wanna try it sometime.
