CLASSIC 'YANG-ZHOU' FRIED RICE

My late Grandfather taught my late Father, who in turn taught me the art of identiyfing a 'well done' Yang-Zhou Fried Rice. You take a single chopstick and run it from the top of the plate or bowl, all the way to the bottom. Once you hit bottom you push the rice aside and look for traces of oil. If you find oil, it fails the test. If there is no oil you check if the rice kernels are coated evenly. If not, it fails but if it does, you look for that shine (from evenly coated oil) .... simple enough?  Dad also said the ingredients must be sauteed in separate batches ie char sui, prawns, minced ginger, sweet preserved trunips, scrambled eggs before they get anywhere near the rice for the final toss.  Lastly, fold in a generous garnish of freshly chopped spring onions, including the white bits to yield fragance and color contrasts.  Voila!

BTW Dad never cooked a single thing in his life, but advice on how classic Cantonese dishes are to be prepared and to be served, a la Guangzhou style in the 30s-40s, he taught me volumes. I miss him.