Crispy Rice

I don't even need to say this again on my blog, but I will. You all know I can't cook. I try, I really do.  I have held dinner parties, made cookies for my students, started a Cooking Club at school (Lord help me), but no matter what, something always seems to go wrong.

 (The only thing I have in common which this picture is the utter look of confusion on her face.)

I've burnt pasta. I've put pepper where salt should be. I don't even want to tell you how many times I've set off the fire alarm in my apartment. But here I am, not giving up, and hoping that one day it'll just "click" and the cooking gods will shine upon me. It hasn't happened yet.

Flash forward to tonight. Once again, I invited some friends over for dinner.  Last time, I thought I would "do something easy" and picked spaghetti. I am embarrassed to say that I burned the pasta (too much in the pot) and instead of serving a meal to my friends, my friends were running around, adding water to one pot, moving spaghetti to another...I would rather not talk about it. ANYWAYS tonight I decided to go for something I KNOW I'm good at. STIR FRY! And Romanians don't eat that kind of food so I knew it would be a new experience for them.  I had everything chopped and ready, purchased some chicken which is a big deal as meat is EXPENSIVE here, and put the rice in the pot to cook.  I had timed everything perfectly, so when they walked in the door the veggies, meat, and rice were ready to be served.

(Ok, so this is not a picture of MY stir fry. But its close, minus the chop sticks..and cute plate. And broccoli.)

We all sat down at the table, and I explained to them that we put soy sauce on it, and I showed them how. Then, they took their first bites. It went something like this:

(chew chew chew...)
Catalin: "Mmm! This is good! You need to tell me how to make rice like this."

Me: (Thinking--WHAT? Make rice like what?) "Oh I'm so glad you like it! What do you mean about the rice? How is it different?"

Catalin: "It is crunchy! It is so good. I've never had homemade Chinese food."

Me: (MORTIFIED, WHICH RESULTED IN QUICK THINKING) "OH! Yeah I don't do anything special, just take the rice off the burner before you're supposed to. I think it adds something to the stir fry."

OH MY GOD. I CAN'T BELIEVE I SAID THAT TO HIM!!

Catalin, this is my apology.  The rice was not supposed to be crunchy. In fact, and I swear, I have never made crunchy rice in my life. It was undercooked and I'm sorry that in my moment of complete mortification (is that a word?) I took credit for the wonderful crunchy rice, the crunch was not intentional. 

But I'm glad you liked it. :)