I first had Pineapple Fried Rice at Thai Basil in downtown Sunnyvale.

Um, WOW! I’m normally a spicy yellow curry and pad thai girl, but this rice would change that. It’s different than your standard Chinese fried rice dish which I don’t even order.

We had some leftover rice and Korean BBQ beef (bulgogi) and decided to try our hand at making some of our own pineapple fried rice. First of all, if you haven’t tried bulgogi, don’t let the name scare you…it’s delish. I know Costco has had it in the past and Trader Joe’s now carries it right next to the marinated carne asada in the refrigerated section.

We loosely followed this recipe. We added the chopped beef, but this would also be excellent with some shrimp, chicken or some leftover pork chops, too. We used soy sauce in place of the fish sauce and bumped up the curry powder a skosh.

Garnished with green onion and cilantro confetti…

Oh man was it good….I felt like I was back at Thai Basil or Siam Thai in Morgan Hill.

I love when we’re able to create restaurant quality food at home!

So please, take your plain, leftover, don’t-know-what-to-do-with steamed white rice and make this. It’s sweet from the pineapple and raisins, spicy from the chili and crunchy & salty from the cashews!