What it is
Fan tuan (飯糰) is a firm roll of hot glutinous rice wrapped around fillings. The classic mix is a piece of youtiao (油條, fried dough), pork floss (肉鬆) and chopped preserved radish (菜脯) or pickled greens. Many shops offer white rice, purple rice (紫米) or a mix, and egg is a common extra. Unlike Japanese onigiri, it is eaten warm and has no seaweed wrap.
Where it came from
The roll descends from cifantuan (粢飯糰), a glutinous rice breakfast from the Jiangnan region around Shanghai, where it is eaten with soy milk. Sweet versions there add sugar and sometimes sesame.
How it took root in Taiwan is less clear. One account dates it to around the Japanese colonial era and ties it to miners. Their homes had no refrigerators, so the previous day's leftovers were folded into rice and wrapped in bamboo leaves to take to work. Japanese rice balls had an influence too, but the Taiwanese roll kept to hot rice. Today it is sold beside shaobing at soy milk shops, along with a sweet version filled with youtiao, peanut powder and sugar.
Abroad it is sometimes called a "Taiwanese burrito". A short video about one rice-roll shop in San Gabriel, California, passed 8.2 million views.
How it is made
Glutinous rice is steamed and kept steaming hot, often in a wooden rice tub, so the roll is still warm when it is handed over. The cook quickly presses a scoop flat by hand, lays on the fillings, then rolls and presses it into a firm log. Fillings are often chopped small so each bite has a bit of everything. Rolls are usually made to order.
How to eat it
It is a breakfast to carry away. Choose the rice first, then add-ons such as fried or braised egg, sausage or chilli oil, and mention anything you want left out. Some shops let you choose how crisp the youtiao is. Since soy milk shops sell it, soy milk is the obvious drink.
Around Taiwan
- North
- Yilan diners expect soy sauce or chilli oil on the rice and a fried egg inside. A Taoyuan market stall that uses braised egg and skips the soy sauce has drawn mock outrage online.
- Central
- Taichung shops show the range. One uses a japonica white rice (台稉九號) instead of glutinous rice, with Hakka pickled mustard greens among the fillings. Another adds a Hakka stir-fry (客家小炒) of squid and dried tofu, and a third splits each roll between white and purple rice.
