Red Centre Trip: Bacon Fried Rice and Salad in Adelaide

<Start Non Food Babble>

We arrived at our accommodation in Adelaide at around 8pm after a day of leisurely driving through Victoria/South Australia. I booked us a cabin at the Adelaide Shores Caravan Park. The first thing I noticed when I got out of the car was how warm it was! The night was breezy and it was very mild compared to Melbourne. It was right on Adelaide’s West Beach and the air was just so much better. We fell in love with our little accommodation (came with fully equipped kitchen) and wished we could spend more time in Adelaide. I have only been to Adelaide twice but both times passing through! A holiday to Adelaide is definitely on the cards! I loved the place!

<End Non-Food Babble>

So we have this box of provisions that I packed. I threw in some pasta, pasta sauce, rice, oil, various seasonings and all sorts of other things. These include bits of vegetables that I had in the fridge (otherwise I would have had to throw them out) and some bacon. So fried rice with bacon it is!

I started off by making rice on the stove where I purposely added a little bit less water so I could fry the rice. Mum, like all Thais who own a rice cooker, was mightily impressed that I could make perfect rice in a saucepan. Once the rice was done, I spreaded it out in a baking dish to dry it out.

This is what I used:

1. 4 cups of cooked rice
2. 3 strips of middle bacon, chopped
3. 1/2 broccoli, chopped
4. 1 small carrot, chopped
5. 1/2 medium zucchini, chopped
6. 4 tbsp of seasoning soy sauce*
7. 2 eggs

(me setting off the smoke alarm)

Unfortunately, the kitchen only provided a tiny frying pan. So I had to fry the bacon and vegetables together first. I started by frying off the bacon in some oil (more oil unfortunately because it wasn’t a non-stick pan) until the bacon was browned. Boy was it smoky! I did tell Josh to open the door but he didn’t because there were two cats loitering outside our cabin and he was afraid that I would start to die (I am quite allergic to them) so the smoke alarm went off. That was good fun.

(the bacon and veggie mixture)

Anyway, I added the chopped veggies and fry those off with the bacon as well. Because the frying pan was so tiny, I set them aside and started frying the rice. I had to do it in two batches. I purposely made a lot so that we could the leftovers for a picnic lunch the next day because we would be back on the road on our way to Coober Pedy.

(frying the rice with egg)

I added a little more oil to the frying pan and added half the rice in. I turned the heat up as much as I could (I miss my Singapore stove, it really went!). I cracked in an egg and scrambled it into the rice. I fried the rice for a few minutes until the egg was cooked. I added 2 tbsp of the seasoning soy sauce and half of the fried bacon and veggie mixture. Another batch followed after we ate our dinner.

And this was what it looked like. A bit of a hatchet job really. But when you are starving, anything tastes good! Tip: I recommend starving your dinner guests so they think your cooking is the best ever

Josh made some salad from iceberg lettuce, tomato and grated cheese. I was supposed to take a long a bottle of my standard balsamic vinegar dressing but I forgot

Mum heated up some more of the uber spicy to be eaten with the fried rice. The uber spicy lasted us two days. I suspected the germs were too scared of how much chillis there were in it.

And dinner was served! All from my box from provisions that I hastily threw together the day before our trip.

* Seasoning soy sauce is a term used to described a type of soy sauce that has additional flavouring ingredients in it. The sauce is usually a little bit thicker and saltier. I can’t describe the flavour but it’s really good with eggs. I use the Maggi Seasoning Sauce which you can find at your local supermarket.