A few years back I had a lunch at work where rice was the base and then there were all kinds of "toppings" to put on it to make the meal. I can remember a gravy-like meat, chow-mein noodles, pineapple, coconut, carrots...I'm looking for what the name of this recipe, Each person is able to choose their own toppings for their plate out of all of the difference choices--it was super fun and we are having company this evening. I was thinking this would be an easy supper to put together!!! Hope one of you knows what it is called!!!
(It's not Chow Mein)
It sounds like Rice Haystacks. Try googling that and you should get the recipe you're looking for.
I wonder if you're thinking of the famous Indonesian Rijstaffel (pronounced rice-tah-fell). It's very popular in the Netherlands and in England, but it's of an Indonesian origin.
Although a traditional Rijstaffel can contain dozens of ingredients, here's a fairly simple presentation:
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art53560.asp
The meat recipe there is a pretty good one, and of course you could also serve steamed vegetables (typical ones are green beans with some dried chili flakes), and chopped pineapple, shredded carrots, etc. You'll want to focus on a couple of flavors that are traditional, which are peanuts and the heat from chilis.
If you didn't do that recipe, just google "chicken satay" or "chicken with a satay sauce" which is just chicken in a simple peanut sauce. That's very common on a Rijstaffel, and pretty easy to make. Set out chicken satay, several different steamed vegetables, the pineapple, coconut flakes and shredded carrots, along with a good hot sauce (look for Sambal Oelek in the Asian section of the grocery store), some dried red pepper flakes, and some soy sauce and you will have a fairly basic but also fairly accurate Rijstaffel.
I'm thinking of Hawaiian Rice Haystacks. This might do the trick:
