Hina's Potato-Chip Fried Rice

Serve when

Serve it the way Hina does — a warm plate made from whatever's in the cupboard for a boy who has nowhere else to go and hasn't eaten in days.

In the movie

Theatrical

~00:31:49 When runaway Hodaka turns up hungry, Hina cooks him fried rice crowned with crushed potato chips — a cheap, resourceful, deeply kind meal that becomes one of the film's warmest moments. Makoto Shinkai later worked with a recipe site to publish the dish officially.

Weathering with You is full of Makoto Shinkai's signature loving close-ups of ordinary food, and Hina's potato-chip fried rice is the standout: a meal made of almost nothing, offered to someone with nothing, and all the more moving for it. It struck such a chord that an official recipe was released — proof that the smallest dish in a film can become the most cherished.

Ingredients

2 cups cold cooked rice
1 handful salted potato chips, lightly crushed
1 egg
1/2 onion, diced
A handful of pea shoots or scallions
1 teaspoon chicken stock powder
1 teaspoon soy sauce, sesame oil
salt and pepper

Method

Heat a little sesame oil and soften the onion.
Push it aside, scramble the egg, then add the cold rice and break it up, frying until the grains are separate and hot.
Season with the stock powder, soy, salt, and pepper, and toss through the pea shoots.
Off the heat, fold in most of the crushed chips so they keep a little crunch, and scatter the rest on top.
Serve at once — the magic is the contrast of soft rice and salty crackle.