Lately, I’ve noticed a curious rebrand of my favorite Taiwanese breakfast: fan tuan, the sticky rice rolls stuffed with crunchy youtiao (fried wheat dough), pickles, marinated egg and more. The Bay Area knows them as “rice burritos” — because here, anything can be a burrito.
A few years ago, finding fan tuan spots was difficult even among the region’s relatively small Taiwanese restaurant scene. Fast forward five years, fan tuan has gained more visibility, with a quartet of spots now dedicated to the snack, and the dish, with its resonant crunch, has become a social media fascination. Videos have garnered millions of views, sparking newfound local interest in the so-called rice burritos.
I set out to sample each fan tuan specialist, which included a takeout counter in Santa Clara, a ghost kitchen in Redwood City, a shop in San Mateo and a spot operating out of a business park in Hayward. On average, most in the Bay Area are about 6 inches in length and about as thick as a soda can — though some are large enough they could pass muster in the Mission…