The stir-fry. It is not a thing in itself, it is a method of cooking. And yet it gets referred to as an end product not a process; where in the seventies Wednesday night might have been Spag Bol night, these days it may well be stir fry night. Its easy to do after all. Ten minute chopping, five minutes cooking, and a few minute drenching the resultant mixture of charred, undercooked and too greasy veg and noodles in something to make it palatable (soy sauce in my book, though a sachet of black bean gloop may appeal to the less frugal). As I sizzled away on my wok I wondered if what I was cooking had anything at all in common with what might be being cooked in China?
Of course it does. Stir fry now equals cheap’n’easy. And if food around the world doesn’t sometimes come down to Wednesday night = cheap’n’easy then people really do have too much time on their hands. That said, I always look a bit wary when it suggests on the back of a Matteson’s Smoked Garlic Sausage that it is ideal for stir-frys. That may be taking quick and easy a little bit too far for my liking.