The major element that sets Korean fried rice apart from the Chinese versions is the rice itself.
While the Chinese recipes call for day-old, dried-out, long-grain rice, Korean fried rice is made with short-grain rice, which is starchier.
This type of rice takes longer to absorb the oil, resulting in a more risotto-like dish. Often, a more flavorful oil such as sesame will be used to fry the rice.
There are many essential ingredients for Korean cooking, including scallions, radishes, pork belly, ganjang (a saltier soy sauce), and kimchi (or fermented cabbage).
Any of these ingredients make for an excellent addition to a Korean fried rice dish, like in this kimchi fried rice with fried eggs on top.
Oftentimes, Korean fried rice is made using the leftover ingredients from the meal made that day, which are left in the pan then fried with the rice.
If there is an abundance of extra sauce leftover from whatever dish was made that day, sometimes scorched rice, or the caramelized rice left at the bottom of the pan, will be mixed with the sauce and served as a final dish, too.
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