A round white porcelain plate holds one round pan-fried oyster cake with golden crisp edges and a pool of orange-red sweet sauce in the middle, small oysters and green leaves showing through, and wooden chopsticks beside it.
The regional cooking of Taiwan, drawing on many food traditions, with rich night-market snacks.
Oyster omelet is a small griddle-fried cake of fresh oysters in a sweet-potato-starch batter, with egg and leafy greens, and in Taiwan it is finished with a sweet sauce. It is believed to come from Fujian and is a common folk snack of southern Fujian. Anping in Tainan and Lukang in Changhua are the Taiwanese places named frequently, and Chaoshan has a close relative called hao lao. No dated record was found; the stories of Zheng Chenggong in 1661 and of a drought in 1594 are tales, and a 2017 article questions the former.
What
Oyster omelet is a small griddle-fried cake: fresh oysters, a sweet-potato-starch batter, egg and leafy greens are fried in an oiled hot pan until the batter turns translucent and sets. The Taiwan version is finished with a sweet sauce, and the Chaoshan relative, hao lao, is drier.1,4,5,6
When
One tale says Zheng Chenggong's army fried oyster cakes in 1661 while besieging the Dutch; a 2017 article questions this and treats the dish as a folk snack of southern Fujian. Another tale concerns the Fujian drought of 1594. No dated record was found; both stories remain legends.1,2
Where
Southern Fujian (Minnan) and Chaoshan. In Taiwan, Anping in Tainan and Lukang in Changhua are the places named frequently, and Kinmen and Penghu have their own versions. Its original birthplace remains unclear.1,2,3,6
How
Oysters go into an oiled hot pan with a starch batter, egg and greens, and are fried until the batter is translucent and set on both sides. A Fujian-style recipe uses sweet-potato starch and potato starch and fries to crisp edges, and a Cantonese-style recipe serves hao lao with a ketchup-based sauce. The Taiwan version is finished with a sweet sauce.1,4,5,6
Why
A 2017 article treats it as common people's food of southern Fujian, made from shore oysters and sweet-potato starch, rather than one person's invention.2
Impact and influence
It is a street snack in Taiwan, Fujian and Guangdong, and it spread to Southeast Asia with Minnan and Teochew emigrants.1,6
Legend has it that in 1661, while Zheng Chenggong besieged the Dutch at Fort Zeelandia, his army ran short of rice, and soldiers fried local oysters and sweet-potato starch into cakes to eat. The habit is said to have stayed. A 2017 Global Views article doubts the story and treats the dish as a folk snack of southern Fujian.
Told in: A story told in Tainan and across Taiwan, found in an introduction by a television food program, in a 2022 recipe article in an English-language magazine and in the 2017 Global Views article. No old book that records it was found.
Chen Zhenlong's Sweet Potato and the Drought of 1594
Legend has it that Chen Zhenlong brought the sweet potato from Manila to Fujian, and that in the great drought of 1594 local people made cakes of sweet-potato starch and oysters as a staple, which is how oyster omelet began.
Told in: A Fujian account retold in Chinese Wikipedia, which cites a 2020 news article that could not be checked for this entry.
Anping's Jian Shi Zhui
Some say that in Anping, Tainan, an older snack called jian shi zhui wrapped oysters, pork and mushrooms in a sweet-potato batter and was topped with a meat sauce to hide the oysters' fishy smell, and that oyster omelet grew out of it.
Told in: An Anping, Tainan account in the introduction of a television food program, which draws on the book Bainian Fanzhuo and carries no date.
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
The two recipes I drew on are one Fujian-style and one Cantonese-style, and neither is the thicker, softer, red-sauce kind sold at Taiwanese night markets. So this is my simplified home version: a sweet-potato-starch batter fried to crisp edges, oysters and greens on top, egg poured over, and a sweet sauce modeled on the Cantonese-style recipe. The amounts and timings below are my own choices at home.
Ingredients
Shucked fresh oysters 150 g
Cornstarch 1 tablespoon, for cleaning the oysters
Sweet-potato starch 50 g
Potato starch 25 g
Water 160 ml, for the batter
Salt 1 g
Eggs 2, beaten
Baby bok choy 2, cut into pieces
Chopped scallion from 2 scallions
Cooking oil 30 ml, used in two portions
Ketchup 30 g, for the sauce
Sugar 8 g, for the sauce
Light soy sauce 5 ml, for the sauce
Rice vinegar 5 ml, for the sauce
Cornstarch 3 g, for the sauce
Water 60 ml, for the sauce
Steps
Put the oysters in a bowl, rub them gently with the tablespoon of cornstarch, rinse them clean in water and drain well.
Make the sauce: put the ketchup, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, cornstarch and 60 ml of water in a small pot, stir while bringing it to a boil, and turn off the heat once it thickens.
Mix the batter: stir the sweet-potato starch, potato starch, salt, 160 ml of water and scallion together. The starch settles, so stir again before each pour.
Heat 15 ml of oil in a flat pan over medium-low heat, pour in the batter, spread it out and lay the oysters and bok choy on top. Fry until the batter turns translucent at the edges, about 2 to 3 minutes, which is the time I choose.
Pour the beaten egg over the top, flip it, and drizzle the remaining 15 ml of oil around the edge. Fry until the egg is fully set and the edges are crisp, the oysters have turned opaque and firm and the inside is hot all the way through. Cut it up and spoon the sauce over.
Tips
I drain the oysters very well before they go in the pan, because too much water keeps the batter from crisping.
To flip, I slide the cake onto a plate and turn it back into the pan, which I find steadier than flipping it with a spatula.
