Fried Rice

Fried rice is a universal idea, as widespread a dish as there is. But no one can tell you which is the fundamental fried rice. Is it the classic Cantonese favorite, in which the rice itself is a foil for mildly sweet Chinese sausage or a panorama of other possible ingredients? Or is it the Indonesian national dish, nasi goreng, resplendent with a rainbow of vegetables and red-hot with chilies?

None of the above qualifies as the ur-fried rice, the Platonic ideal on which these