In Thailand, there is a pantheon of food with foreign-sounding names that have nothing to do with their supposed countries of origin. We have, for one, the Kanom Tokyo, a folded crepe that few Japanese would be able to identify. Or take the Lod Chong Singapore, another dessert that would mystify Singaporeans. 

One that I feel deserves more attention is “American fried rice.”

For — ironically — any American (and non-Thai) readers of this piece, allow me to briefly describe its glories. The core of this dish is rice cooked with ketchup and soy sauce, allowing it to turn orange. (Keep an open mind!) It is then placed with a variety of ingredients that feel as American as it gets: fried chicken, ham, sausages, and a fried egg. It is often topped with, although I fail to understand why, raisins.

The standard American fried rice that people think of would probably be similar to the one you can order at Took Lae Dee (“Cheap and Good”) —  the iconic Foodland restaurant, prized by expats and Thais alike. But restaurants specializing in the dish have also come into existence. One, “Lucky’s Hungry American Fried Rice,” has variants featuring Angus beef, pork patties and smoked ham. 

I think I was only dimly aware in my childhood that this is not a meal that you can find in the United States. Eat it I did; the school I attended often served it for lunch. Only as I grew up did I realize that the vast majority of Americans will have never even have heard of this dish — let alone try it.

I have sometimes wondered how an American fried rice food truck would fare in, say, the Bay Area, but I have come to concede that it would probably be a spectacular business failure. To describe its cooking would be cause enough to horrify most (“rice in ketchup?!”)  Maybe real Americans reading about this would find the notion that such a dish is being called American fried rice offensive — but trust me, it’s really not as bad as it might sound. 

So how in the world did American fried rice come to be? The origins of American fried rice is murky, with a couple of competing theories. The first popular theory is that a chef named “Go Jek” who worked at a military base in Udon Thani during the Vietnam war invented this dish to serve to American troops who were stationed in Thailand. For nostalgic American soldiers it was a hit. I think that this is the theory that most Thais, to the extent that they have thought about the origins of this strange dish at all, would subscribe to.

Another is an account by Khunying Sureepan Maneewat, who was running a restaurant at Don Muang Airport. She described its invention in an interview with the Sakul Thai magazine:

“Did you know that the American fried rice that is now so popular came from me? There were ingredients left over, so we had to use it…an airline cancelled on us, but we had already prepared breakfast [for the passengers]: eggs, sausages, so many things. So I said, since we already have fried rice, just put the eggs and the chicken on top. Once we started eating it as an example, the air force officers started ordering it too. An American soldier then said that this looks good, and so I christened it ‘American fried rice.’ Khun Tawee Julapan was the Chief of Staff of the Air Force at the time, and he really liked this name. Some days I would change the meat from sausage to roast chicken or fried beef, depending on what was left over in the kitchen.” 

Plausible as well? Perhaps. It could even be the case that both stories are true, and that American fried rice was invented by two different people around the same time period.

Some might say that it is strange that America, hegemonic in many areas but often mocked for its food (I write this even as I fully admit that American fast food is a personal weakness), would have such an enduring influence on a culinary superpower in the form of a common dish. One of my American friends who works in government did say, upon hearing of American fried rice: “This is American soft power at work. It’s tremendous.” Indeed, the only time that I had ever seen this dish named anything differently at a Thai restaurant, it was called khao pad maha amnaj – “great power fried rice.” 

And that perhaps explains why American fried rice in itself is not entirely unique. When one thinks of the ubiquity of spam in Korean cuisine, for example, we likewise see the American alliance system at work in the food we consume.

But while great powers rise, their influence can also wane. American fried rice could, in some ways, be seen as a proxy for America’s hold on Thailand, her oldest ally in Asia. As the anthropologist Nattha Chuenwattana has suggested, what were once expensive ingredients that wowed when they were placed together in one plate has instead become a symbol of the declining specialness of American food. “Ham, sausage, and fried chicken have become commonplace staples,” available in street food carts. 

In an increasingly multipolar world, as some have come to neglect and place less importance in the US alliance, the once exotic American fried rice has also become a regular dish, unremarkable in its existence. Yet at the same time, the fact that it exists at all is a reminder of the ties that continue to bind together Thailand and America, a representation of a partnership that continues. It is undeniable that America has left an indelible imprint on Thailand, and we still see it in food courts everyday, in the form of American fried rice.

And so you have it. I’ll be waiting for the day a courageous Thai restaurant tries serving this in America. Or perhaps a diner like Denny’s might want to take this on?