ข้าวผัดเสฉวน / ข้าวผัดกระเทียมพริก (มังสวิรัติ / ไข่ / ไก่)

Wok-charred rice that arrives smelling of toasted garlic and dried red chilli, the kind of smoke that clings to the kitchen long after service.

• Burnt garlic, fried hard until nutty and dark.
• Szechuan sauce, numbing, sharp, a little sweet.
• Chilli, sliced thin, seeds and all.
• Onion and scallion, tossed in at the last minute.
• Long-grain rice, cooked a day ahead so it stays separate.

Indo-Chinese cooking grew up in the Chinese kitchens of Calcutta and Bombay, and this is its plainest pleasure: rice hit with high heat, garlic taken past golden, chilli doing the rest. Choose it plain, with egg, or with chicken — the wok work doesn't change. Contains: eggs. May contain: traces of nuts.