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.
Sugar and butter is also the secret to making vegetables taste better.
TBF, butter makes just about everything taste better.
I’ll have to try a little sugar on mine next time!