one of my closest friend's boyfriend, T, has learned two phrases in chinese: "i love you" and " fried pork chop rice". he enjoys saying them together, "i love you, fried pork chop rice!".
while other people may have opted to learn more useful sentences, like, "how are you?" or "where is the bathroom?", i'd say this is a pretty good start.
fried pork chop rice is a delicious, casual (and admittedly, unhealthy) dish in taiwanese cuisine, and most people would heartily agree with T's enthusiastic declaration. using the recipe from my chinese rice and noodles cookbook (recipes are both in chinese and english), i attempted to make my first fried pork chop rice.
