Steve L.
Yelp
I don't get to Brooklyn very much, but we had to go to the Google Store to get my mother-in-law's phone fixed. We decided to find something local to eat and came across Fan Fried Rice Bar.
My wife and mother-in-law are both Taiwanese, so we decided to give it a shot. For those who aren't familiar with the Taiwanese culture, they put a lot of pride in their cuisine. You won't find the finest Taiwanese cuisine in a Michelin star restaurant, you'll find it at midnight walking through a noisy, smelly, crowded street market. To this day, some of the best things my taste buds have ever encountered were in Taiwanese street markets.
When most people think of "fried rice", they think of the neighborhood Chinese takeout place trying to use up yesterday's white rice. It's a shame, because it keeps most people from having truly great fried rice.
I've had a lot of fried rice in my day, and the bowl I had an Fan Fried Rice Bar easily ranks among the top. Give it a try and you'll see what I mean. Each grain of rice is cooked to absolute al dente perfection, flavorful, and all coming together gloriously with peas and eggs in perfect balance. Add on top some Taiwanese sausage or fried pork chop, and it's heavenly. My mother-in-law is such as good cook that she generally hates going to restaurants, but even she complimented the dish, saying that it takes really good technique and really, really high temperatures to achieve this.
The decor is simple, but definitely evokes Taiwan. A projection screen above the bar shows a steady stream of vintage Taiwanese films dating back to the early 20th century.
The menu is simple, but contains a lot of the classics you'll find in a Taiwanese street market, from popcorn chicken to Taiwanese sausage to fried pork chops. Given their location, they wisely avoid dishes that aren't necessarily friendly to the Western palate (stinky tofu, oyster pancakes). Of the dishes they do serve, they all rival the best of what you'd find in Taiwan.
Of course, the only downside is that the prices aren't quite what you'd see in a Taiwan street market, but that's to be expected...it costs a bit more to maintain a cool street corner in WIlliamsburg than an old wooden cart.
Even though I live all the way in Long Island, I would definitely make a trip to go there again.