The goal with chopping shallots is to chop them to about the same size as a cooked grain of rice.
Use a sharp knife for chopping shallots and garlic to avoid crying.
When chopping garlic, mince it a touch finer than the shallots.
To dry out the rice and make it similar to day-old leftover rice, spread it out evenly on a sheet tray and place it in the refrigerator, ideally overnight.
When cooking fried rice, if you have a wok, use a wok.
The first step in a wok is to coat your entire wok or pan with oil and heat it until it starts to smoke.
Once the oil starts to smoke, carefully pour it off into a heatproof bowl. You are done with that oil.
When cooking the aromatics, you don't want to burn anything. These will cook for about 30 to 45 seconds.
Always scrape down the sides of the pan when cooking aromatics.
For the eggs, you want to get them nice and fluffy and cook them for about 30 to 45 seconds.
When adding rice, you should immediately hear a crackling and popping sound if your pan is at the correct temperature.
When cooking rice, make sure every individual grain of rice is separate; don't let anything clump together.
Keep things moving at a high heat when cooking the rice; do not let anything burn.
Before adding soy sauce, scrape all the fried rice to the edge of the wok and tilt the pan so the flame is hitting mostly one edge of the pan. Then pour the soy sauce on the edge of the pan so it bubbles up.
It's fun to try to flip your fried rice into your wok spoon and then spoon that onto your plate, although it takes a lot of hand-eye coordination.
For plating, pack the fried rice tightly into a bowl, flip a plate over the top, and then quickly invert it onto the plate.
Finish with a sprinkle of green onions and an optionally fried egg.