In Taiwan, rice balls are a regular fixture in the early morning, doled out from darling carts with large bamboo rice buckets. If you squint hard enough and use a bit of imagination, you might find yourself in bygone days—in an era when food was exclusively peddled on the streets or on wooden shoulder poles, when people lingered for neighborhood gossip before sauntering off to their next engagement. While those days are far behind us, there's a certain level of quaintness still evident at these breakfast stands. Even more endearing, most owners know their most loyal customers' orders by heart.
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The Mandarin term for rice balls is fan tuan (飯糰) and in Taiwan, they're oblong, stuffed with things, and made with hot sticky rice.
"In the old days, fan tuan was just warm sticky rice wrapped around pickled mustard greens and salted radish," Shiyu Liu says. "We also used lotus leaves instead of plastic to wrap it together."Liu is the owner of Liu Mama Fan Tuan (劉媽媽飯團), a wildly popular breakfast stand in the Da'an District of Taipei. You can spot the stand from a mile away—just look for the long line of people fiddling on their phones as they wait for their orders. The stand is so busy that they have three separate fan tuan stations to satisfy demand."Old days?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. Liu doesn't look a day over 35.He motions to his mother, who is in the back of the store minding the rice."Mom told me," he says.Unfortunately, modern fan tuans aren't so simple anymore, because simplicity isn't sexy to customers. In order to sell well, there must be endless permutations. Liu Mama, for example, has well over three dozen options, and if you don't like what you see on the menu, you can request your own.You might find a fan tuan stuffed with cheese, and another designed for vegetarians. Even the rice that it's packed with is getting quirkier: There's purple rice, cereal rice, rice with corn, rice with sesame, rice wrapped with seaweed.Here's 11 types you might find in Taipei:
The Original
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It's all packed in firmly with rice and then squeezed into a perfect oblong.For newcomers to Taiwan, Yong He Dou Jiang is the ideal place to get a fan tuan primer and gorge on other Taiwanese morning classics like freshly churned soy milk, soft pork buns, and large pieces of fried crullers. While Yong He is a chain restaurant with outposts in nearly every neighborhood in town, each store retains a small-business feel. Mostly, it's because the items are made to order. Fan tuan is freshly packed up and rolled by a guy in the back.Yong He Dou Jiang (永和豆漿大王), No. 102, Section 2, Fùxīng South Road
Sweet Something
Egg Roll
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All fan tuans are packaged up in cling wrap and then put in a thin plastic bag, designed to be eaten on the go. This is a common practice, done everyday for seven days a week all year long. There's a lot of plastic that goes into a typical Taiwanese breakfast.He has a variation of fan tuan that I've dubbed "egg roll." It has all the fixings of a regular fantuan (cruller, floss, braised egg, pickled mustard greens, radish) but the main difference is that there's an egg wrapped around it. The egg is flecked with scallions, which adds an extra layer of spice. Also, instead of pork floss, Liu uses fish. "Fish floss is less absorbent than pork floss. Pork floss makes it soggy," he says.Mei Jia Mei (美加美) No. 12-1, Lane 1 Heping Road
Bacon
Pork with Burdock Root
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Liu Mama (劉媽媽飯團) No. 88, Section 2, Hangzhou South Road
Purple Rice Original
Purple Kimchi and Pork
Land and Sea
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"It's important that the cruller is at least a day old," Liu says. "You have to fry it two times to get that signature crunch."Liu Mama (劉媽媽飯團) No. 88, Section 2, Hangzhou South Road
Duo-Colored Spicy Chicken
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"The last thing we need is a mob," Zhang says.Zhang's business is, I realize, the ideal candidate for "The Egg Tart Effect." His stand is considerably more hip than the other ones on this list. Each cart is manned by a team of two attractive youths. The fan tuans are also made to cater to a younger, more Westernized palate. The chicken fan tuan is sharp and spicy. There's also one that oozes with cheese."All of our rice is sourced from the middle of Taiwan," he notes. "Taiwan produces some of the world's best sticky rice."Rice Chef (米大廚) Dongmen MRT Station Exit 5
Cheese
Five-Grain Vegan
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The fan tuan from North Pastry is something I have eaten every day for the last four months paired with a cup of warm, slightly sweetened soy milk. I can pay my breakfast daily with one coin: a 50NT piece, which is the equivalent to $1.50 USD.I'm enamored of this stand simply because the ladies know me by my face. I can roll out of bed, walk over there in my pajamas, and get my fan tuan without having to say a word.My friends watch as the lady who packs my fan tuan stuffs it with all my favorite things: a heap of pickled vegetables, bean curd, tofu. The beauty of North Pastry is that they're generous with their servings. The rice roll is quite large—one of the biggest in town. They also use five-grain rice instead of purple or white. It's nutty and packs looser than sticky white rice."We want the same thing," my friends say, convinced. The woman nods and, without a word, makes an extra three.North Pastry (北方大陸餅) No. 10, Alley 5, Lane 130, Section 3, Minsheng East Road
This article first appeared on MUNCHIES in June 2017.
This article first appeared on MUNCHIES in June 2017.