Better Than a Breakfast Burrito? This Portable Morning Meal Is the Go-to Choice of Millions

In many bustling cities, the most cherished breakfast items are those that can be wrapped in paper or plastic and eaten on the go. In Taipei, where I live, we have our pick of the crop. There are hot steamed buns filled with pork and chives, hamburgers with thin pork patties slicked with sweet ketchup, and scallion pancakes folded over eggs. For the past few years, my favorite portable breakfast has been the fan tuan, a portable burrito-shaped rice roll with roots in eastern China. They’re also practical: quick, filling, and nutritionally balanced.

Translated into English, the Chinese words “fan tuan” mean “rice parcel.” It is a compact package of carbs, protein, and fiber that made its way to Taiwan via Chinese refugees during the mid-20th century, when China was at the cusp of its civil war. Originally an obscure breakfast item enjoyed mainly by the refugees who introduced it, fan tuan has since become an everyday staple in Taiwan.  I like it because, unlike many other Taiwanese street foods, it’s not greasy and doesn’t easily fall apart, so you can’t accidentally stain your clothes on the way to work. 

Part of fan tuan’s appeal is that it is highly customizable. You can pick what goes into it and around it, much like selecting an avatar in a video game. The most classic iteration features white sticky rice wrapped around pork floss, a deep-fried cruller, pickled radish, and mustard greens. While that is the default combination, it is not always the most popular. These days, most people seem to prefer purple rice instead of the classic white sticky rice for its chewy texture and nuttiness.

I used to live next to a beloved—though now defunct—fan tuan stall, and was constantly impressed by the dexterity of the two-person team who manned it. With a flimsy awning above them and just a stainless steel countertop arranged in an L-shape, the pair took orders, doled out change, and packed thousands of fan tuan permutations daily, rain or shine. 

After many weeks of tweaking my order–with or without pork floss, with white rice or purple rice—I eventually settled on this technicolor vegetarian rendition. For me, it’s the perfect harmony of textures and flavors, balancing just the right chewiness of the rice with a burst of flavor from the filling. It also happens to be stunning when it’s cut into.

For the Best Fan Tuan, Go With Sticky Rice

Sticky (or glutinous) rice is at the heart of the fan tuan experience. It is what binds the dish together. Unlike non-glutinous varieties, sticky rice has high amounts of amylopectin, a carbohydrate that makes the rice tacky when cooked. The higher the levels of amylopectin the rice, the stickier it is. There are two main types of sticky rice: long-grain and short-grain. Short-grain sticky rice’s amylopectin content is over 90%, while long-grain only contains up to 20%. As a rule of thumb, in Taiwanese cuisine, long-grain sticky rice is used for savory dishes, and short-grain sticky rice is reserved for desserts. 

Because fan tuan is savory, it’s made with long-grain white sticky rice. The grains are sticky enough to keep everything together, and the kernels stay intact when pressed together or manipulated. 

Fan tuan made with purple rice is a twist that only became popular within the last decade. Wellness influencers often tout it as a healthier option because of its high fiber content and richness in anthocyanins, water-soluble antioxidants that give foods such as berries, grapes, and beets their vibrant red, purple, and blue colors. It also has a distinct chew that’s reminiscent of a bowl of al dente steel-cut oats.

My recipe below calls for a mix of long-grain sticky rice and purple rice, which strikes a fun balance of chewy, sticky, and soft textures. When the two types of rice are soaked in water together, the purple leaches into the white rice, creating a gorgeous lavender ombre effect.

How to Cook Sticky Rice So It’s Perfectly Glutinous—Not Mushy

Cooking sticky rice is slightly trickier than non-glutinous varieties, and cooking it with water directly in the pot might make it too wet and tacky. The hot tip here is to soak the sticky rice for at least four hours, drain it, then steam the hydrated rice without any extra water in the pot. This cooks and softens the rice from within without turning it into a mushy mess and produces grains that are sticky enough to bind together but not so sticky that the rice clings to your fingers when touched.

How to Fill and Assemble Fan Tuan

There are no rules about what you can and cannot fill your fan tuan with. Because the rice is so malleable, you can pack in more than you’d think. As a starting point, I always add half a youtiao (deep-fried cruller) for crunch. You can make them at home or, if you live near a Taiwanese or Chinese bakery or breakfast shop, you can buy them. Unless the cruller is hot out of the fryer, I recommend quickly toasting it in the oven to crisp it up, otherwise it may become spongy and tough when wrapped with the other fillings. Bean curd adds meatiness, egg strips give it heft, and the pickled mustard greens provide a tart, punchy flavor. Though pork floss is traditional, I prefer my fan tuan without it, as it makes each bite drier than I’d like.  

Although there are no rules about what you put in your fan tuan, a good rice-to-filling ratio can make or break the rice roll. Too much rice, and it becomes dense and clunky. But if there’s too little, the entire roll loses its structure and falls apart. The trick to figuring out the ideal amount of rice to use is to place a layer of plastic wrap on top of a clean kitchen towel, then use a wet spoon—which prevents the sticky rice from clumping up—to spread a ¼-inch layer of rice onto the cling film. To shape it, lift up the towel and plastic wrap to roll the rice over the filling, then use your hands to gently squeeze and shape the rice into an oblong roll. 

The plastic wrap on a towel is a trick I learned from watching fan tuan vendors throughout Taipei: The plastic wrap creates a nonstick surface, while the towel provides a stable surface that helps evenly distribute pressure as you shape the rice ball. By pressing the rice onto the plastic wrap—using the towel as support—you can ensure the rice layer is thin and not overly thick.

Eat It Warm

When sticky rice is cooked, the amylopectin molecules gelatinize and swell, making the rice clump together and appear sticky. As the rice cools, a process called starch retrogradation occurs, and the gelatinized starch molecules begin to harden. It’s the same process that makes bread stale. Within an hour or two, the fan tuan turns from wonderfully moist to disappointingly dry. 

To avoid this unfortunate situation, it’s essential to make and eat your fan tuan immediately. Given the number of steps required, that might seem intimidating, but once the toppings are prepped and the rice is cooked, the entire dish can be assembled in minutes. Wrap it up, and that’s breakfast to go. Just don’t wait more than an hour or so to dig in—but I suspect that won’t be a problem at all.