I noticed that David Chang likes to add a bit of agave nectar to his fried rice. I never thought about adding something sweet to this, so I started adding a small amount of brown sugar (maybe 1/4 to 1/2 tsp) to my fried rice, and it really seems to make it tastier. It doesn’t read as “sweet” - it just gives it a tiny bit of an additional flavor boost. Since then I’ve also tried playing around with adding a tiny amount of sugar to other things, and it’s usually pretty good.
It’s pretty common in Thailand and Cambodia for fried rice to be made with a spoonful of white sugar.
Many of their curries as well. Originally it was palm sugar, but most people just use white sugar now. Palm sugar adds its own distinct taste.
Palm sugar is delicious. Jaggery, too!
Love Thai fried rice!