Fried Rice

After finishing secondary school, Min spends her school holiday with her cousin Lilly in Kuala Lumpur. She daydreams of migrating to the United States to work in animation and submits an application to a prestigious art school in New York.

Fried Rice is a story about a young person wanting to leave home in order to chase a dream career and carve out her own destiny

From the Author:

The story of Fried Rice is really close to my heart because it’s drawn from my real-life experiences. It’s the story of how I didn’t get to achieve what I thought I wanted and how I learnt to appreciate what I had in front of me. I really hope you enjoy reading it!

Author Profile:

Erica Eng is a Malaysian author and illustrator. In 2020, she won the Best Webcomic Eisner and Ringo awards for her semi-autobiographical webcomic Fried Rice which was also nominated for a Harvey award that same year. Fried Rice is her debut graphic novel.

Praises:

“I have been struggling to find words to best describe this book. It is a time in the life of a student when they are at a crossroads; the want to pursue studies in a different country in hopes that it would kickstart their future, but the long wait for the results of their application, and the life that goes on in between.

I am jealous that Erica has managed to do so with this novel. Fried Rice encapsulates uncertainties of growing up that were in all of us at one point in time, and assures us that we are not alone.”

CHEEMING BOEY, author of the When I was a Kid series.

“Fresh and un-clichéd.”

REIMENA YEE, Eisner, and McDuffie nominated author of The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya, Séance Tea Party, My Aunt is a Monster, The World in Deeper Inspection and Alexander, the Servant and the Water of Life.

“Charming.”

MALAY MAIL, (Article) “Malaysian life in comics: Webcomic by female Batu Pahat illustrator nominated for the prestigious Eisner Award” by Melanie Chalil.

“Eng’s work…(accurately portrays) the character and mood of a scene. Her drawings evoke a sense of familiarity, whether it is eating a packet of nasi lemak for breakfast or attaching a stamp to your mail at the nearby post office. It draws on mundane life and depicts activities you would normally do on a languid weekend morning or conversations you would have with your best friend. These simple scenes make you wonder if they were extracted from your own memory.”

OPTIONS, THE EDGE, (Article) “Erica Eng relates a Malaysian teenager’s struggles in her Eisner-nominated slice-of-life webcomic ‘Fried Rice’” by Emily Yap.