Growing up, whenever my family ordered Chinese food (which was at least once a month), chicken fried rice was my go-to order.

Fried rice was the first big meal I made after becoming a vegetarian in January 2009. To embrace my new eating choices, I wanted to bring along updated versions of my favorite foods.

It was the first time I made tofu, and fried rice quickly became one of my favorite comfort foods to make.

Around that same time, I fell in love with the films of Wong Kar-wai, including “Chungking Express” and “In the Mood for Love” (check back next February for that pairing).

One of the lead characters in “Chungking Express” is obsessed with buying cans of pineapple (223 is his badge number), so I decided to make pineapple tofu fried rice for this pairing.

This recipe is vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free and low FODMAP. It makes 4 servings. You could easily make it vegan by omitting the eggs or substituting with vegan eggs.

Ingredients
1 cup brown rice, uncooked
1 brick tofu, cubed
1 10-ounce bag of shredded carrots
2 cups canned pineapple (drained)
4 tablespoons tamari
4 tablespoons chili oil
4 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon asafoetida/hing
4 green onions (green stalks only)
2 eggs

Instructions
Boil the rice, preferably in a wok, per the rice packaging instructions. You can use white rice if you prefer that over brown.

While the rice is cooking, cube your tofu and air fry it at 390°F for 8 minutes. (This isn’t absolutely necessary, but it helps the tofu keep its shape when you mix it with the other ingredients later.)

Chop the green onions and shred the carrots (if you didn’t buy them pre-shredded).

When nearly all the water has been evaporated or absorbed from the rice, add the fried tofu, shredded carrots, pineapple, tamari, chili oil, ginger, asafoetida and green onions. Stir as you add the ingredients so everything is well mixed.

Crack the two eggs into the wok and stir the rice until you can see cooked bits of egg in the mixture.

Once any excess moisture has dried up from the wok, serve and enjoy with the movie!

The Pairing
“Chungking Express” is two stories in one, and they both center around cops and a takeout restaurant.

The first one tells the unlikely love story of a detective (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and a criminal (Brigitte Lin). They bump into each other without stopping at the beginning of the movie, and narration tells you they’ll be in love in just a couple days.

After their story plays out, we turn to a uniformed officer (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) and one of the employees at the takeout restaurant, Faye (Faye Wong).

Their love story is unusual, to say the least. When we meet them, she just is the awkward waitress milling about in the background, playing “California Dreamin'” too loud.

He is in a relationship with a flight attendant that is experiencing some turbulence.

Essays that examine this film more closely point out the Faye character’s quirkiness. While I agree that is valid, I’d also argue that the officer (we’re never told his name) is just as quirky. He has full conversations with dish towels and teddy bears that don’t talk back, after all.

These character studies and the interactions between them are what make “Chungking Express” so fascinating in both parts of the film, but especially the second half for me.

A Tangent
Many American audiences were introduced to the quiet smolder of Tony Leung Chiu-Wai in last year’s “Shang Chi” (he played the dad). My college film classes introduced me to him in the films of Wong Kar-wai, namely “Chungking Express” and “In the Mood for Love,” so I’ve been part of his fan club for the last couple decades.

If you’re looking to explore more movies with the “hot dad from Shang Chi,” I highly recommend those two, along with “Happy Together” and “2046.” (If blogs still exist in 2046, maybe I’ll celebrate with a pairing for that film.)

If you decide to make 223 Fried Rice and/or watch “Chungking Express,” let us know! Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, tweets or TikTok videos: @veg_out_recipes