Friday's
Five
This Week
碟頭飯 | Rice Plate is one bowl, built to work for everyone
It's what a student grabs between classes, what an office worker eats at their desk mid-scroll, and what someone else orders when they actually want to sit down and enjoy a meal alone, no rush, no one to answer to.
This week, we've brought five Rice Plate classics home for exactly that flexibility. Cook one on a night you're moving fast and need dinner solved. Cook another when you've got the evening to yourself. Same format, same one grocery list, however your week actually goes.
The Menu
碟頭飯
Rice Plate
Five bowls, one grocery list, made to fit whatever kind of solo meal you're actually having this week. This week's menu takes
碟頭飯 | Rice Plate, Hong Kong's answer to a dish that works for everyone, and brings it home: crispy corn fish fillet, black pepper chicken chop, tomato egg beef, a tofu version for anyone skipping meat, and salt and pepper pork chop. Eat it fast at your desk, or slow at your own table. Either way, it's sorted
20 min
Black Bean Beef
Beef seared hot and fast for real wok hei, then tossed with garlic, ginger, chili, and black beans
Sear the beef hard and fast, then pull it out before it's fully done — it keeps cooking in the final toss, and that's what keeps it tender instead of chewy. Going the mushroom route instead? Skip the sear-and-rest step entirely and just stir-fry them straight through in the sauce.
20 min
Sweet Corn Fish Rice
This is the one that shows up on every cha chaan teng menu without asking permission first. Fish fillet, marinated and pan-fried with no deep-frying required, then drowned in a sweet, savoury corn sauce that turns whatever rice is sitting in the cooker into something worth coming home for.
斑塊 (bān kuài) traditionally means grouper cut into chunks. We're keeping this easy with a whole pan-fried fillet instead, so there's no dicing, no grouper-specific sourcing, and any white fish fillet works.
25 min
Black Pepper Chicken Chop Rice
Chicken chop over rice is the cha chaan teng answer to 'I don't know what I want but it needs to be loud.' A proper roux-built black pepper sauce, and a piece of chicken pan-fried skin-side down until it holds its own against the sauce.
The flour roux is what turns this into a proper HK-style black pepper sauce instead of a thin stir-fry glaze — don't skip it even though it's an extra step.
15 min
Cantonese Silky Scrambled Egg and Shrimp
Shrimp poached gently in stock, then blanketed under a silky egg drop sauce that clings to every grain of rice. It's the lightest dish of the week, and proof that Rice plate doesn't always have to shout to be good.
Keep the heat gentle once the egg goes in — a hard boil turns the silky drop sauce into scrambled egg soup instead.
20 min
Salt & Pepper Pork Chop Rice
The pork chop that closes out the week. Pounded into strips, marinated, then fried twice, once for the garlic, once for the pork, before everything gets tossed back together with chili and five spice.
Fry the garlic first and set it aside before cooking the pork. This gives you crispy garlic on top, and keeps the pork clean instead of picking up burnt bits from the pan.
The Archive
03
碟頭飯 | Rice Plate
Rice cooked once, one plate, dinner sorted in minutes.
02
Pasta Night
One pantry staple. Five timeless classics
