Why David Chang Fries Eggs Separately For His Leftover Fried Rice

David Chang's fried rice philosophy is a clever way to use up this dish as well as other food fragments from previous nights' dinners. The Momofuku founder revealed on his website that in his household, they eat fried rice in the morning for breakfast. He breathes new life into it by chopping up whatever protein or veggies need to be used up, along with some garlic and a little bit of spicy heat. But that's not the true genius of his method. It gets better.

Chang fries up the rice and add-ins and then transfers it to a bowl or plate before frying his eggs separately. Cooking his eggs separately from the rice allows him to make eggs to order to please multiple preferences — jammy yolks, scrambled, over easy, and the list goes on. Chang prefers his with a runny yolk and the benefit of keeping the yolk soft multiplies the satisfaction for the taste buds in an unexpected way.

A runny yolk creates a creamy, buttery, almost sauce-like element to fried rice. Because the yolk contains all the egg's fat, it also contains all of the savory and sweet flavors your mouth knows and loves. When you fully cook the yolk, you are drying it out and losing a lot of the fatty flavor that makes an egg so delicious.  

If you prefer, you can put all your culinary creativity to the test and poach your eggs. This, too, will produce a runny yolk, providing a similar effect for all those hungry mouths. And of course, you can really change up the flavor of this dish with some additional herbs, like cilantro, and sauce, such as a fish sauce, and serve this reimagined fried rice with chili peppers that will definitely have your tongue doing the cha-cha.