Everyone who has spend their time in the kitchen at some point would get creative with any leftovers found in the fridge.
Interestingly, some of these dishes later became iconic recipes on their own.
Here are five famous dishes that you might not know come from leftovers:
1.Paella
This is one of the best-known dishes in Spanish cuisine. It takes its name from the wide, shallow traditional pan used to cook the dish on an open fire ‘paella’. It is the word for frying pan in Valencian language.
Legends has it that this iconic Spanish dish was created by Moorish kings’ servants who mixed leftovers from royal banquets in large pots to take home.
Another version of the origin story is that paella was a dish made during lunchtime meals for farmers and farm labourers in Valencia, Spain. The labourers would gather what was available around them at the rice fields.
Whatever they could mix into the rice such as tomatoes, onions and snails were put into the pan and cooked over an open fire.
The traditional version from the Valencia region is widely believed to be the original recipe of paella.
It consists of rice, green beans, rabbit, beef, pork, lamb, chicken, sometimes duck cooked in olive oil and chicken, fish, seafood or beef broth.
2.Bibimbap
Although the exact origin of bibimbap is unknown, many agree that it could have started during the olden days when outdoor rites were widely performed.
Traditionally rites such as sansinje (rite for mountain gods) or dongsinje (rite for village gods) required the believers to ‘eat with the god’.
Since these rites were performed outside where there were not many pots or crockery, they would mix all the food offerings together in a bowl before eating it.
Bibimbap became famous among the Koreans especially during the eve of the lunar new year.
Since they believed that they had to get rid of all the leftover side dishes before the brand new year, the solution was to put all the leftover in a bowl of rice and mix them together.
Today, fans of Korean food do not have to attend a traditional rite or wait for the eve of lunar new year to enjoy a bowl of bibimbap.
A typical bibimbap contains rice, soy bean sprouts, mushrooms, radish, egg, gochujang, sesame oil and sesame seeds.
3.Chinese Fried rice
Today whenever we have leftover rice, the most common thing to do is to make fried rice out of it.
Apparently, the Chinese have been doing it since the Sui dynasty (589-618 CE).
The rice is cooked with other leftover foods such as meat and vegetables.
Usually if these leftovers go bad, they would feed it to the animals. If the foods are still good to consume, they whip out something hot from it and that was how fried rice came about.
4.Chazuke or ochazuke
Speaking of leftover rice, there is one simple dish that everyone can make at home even those who are lack of culinary skill.
Chazuke or orchazuke is a simple Japanese dish made by pouring green tea, dashi or hot water over cooked rice.
It is taken as a quick snack which now is commonly topped with nori (seaweed), sesame seeds, furikake and tsukeono (Japanese pickles).
The history of chazuke can be traced back to the Heian period of Japan (794-1185) when water was commonly poured over rice.
Then during the Edo period (1603-1867), people started to use tea instead.
5.Pain Perdu
Most people are not familiar with the French phrase pain perdu but only its English cousin French toast.
Pain perdu literally translates ‘lost bread’, referring to the use of stale bread that would otherwise be lost.
The original French toast is known to come with a crisp buttery exterior and a soft custody interior.
Although the name is French, some believe that France did not come up with the dish.
The idea of soaking bread in a milk and egg mixture and then fry it in oil or butter can be traced back as early as the Roman Empire from the early 5th century AD.
Regardless of who created it, French toast is definitely our favourite way to make something new out of a leftover bread.
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