Fan Tuan, a Taiwanese breakfast, is a cuisine that comforts math teacher Tiffany Yeh.

Fan Tuan consists of rice wrapped around what Yeh said is her “equivalent of a donut.” Also inside is pork floss, “pork fried and cooked at such a high temperature that it dries out,” and mustard plant.

Fan Tuan makes Yeh feel closer to home as her family immigrated from Taiwan.

“When I go down to LA to see my parents, I like to go to a Taiwanese restaurant,” Yeh said. “The restaurant is called Yung Ho Dou Jiang.”

Yeh has made Fan Tuan herself, but does not make it regularly.

“It’s not difficult, but it was a lot of ingredients,” Yeh said. “And they’re difficult to find here.”

Recipe:
½ cups uncooked white sticky rice
2 tablespoons pork floss
1 teaspoon finely chopped pickled daikon or pickled mustard greens, divided. Yeh realized she usually uses pickled daikon instead of pickled mustard greens.
1 Chinese cruller

Steam the white sticky rice. When cooled, lay out a 12 inch long piece of plastic wrap and then smooth out a 10 inch square of rice approximately one centimeter thick on top. Sprinkle the pork floss evenly on the rice, leaving one inch empty on top. Then lay the cruller across the center and put the pickled daikon along the edge of the cruller. Then, using the plastic wrap, roll the rice around the cruller and then twist the ends of the plastic wrap to make a log.

Tiffany Yeh in her classroom.