Fujian Cuisine · FFET10280
Hai li bing (Fuzhou oyster cake)
Hai li bing is a snack made by laying batter in a ladle, adding oysters, minced pork and chives, and frying it.
A white porcelain plate holds golden fried oyster cakes with gray shucked oysters, browned minced pork, pink shrimp and green chives visible inside the filling, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
The regional cooking of Fujian, using sea produce and mountain ingredients together, with a strong tradition of soups.
Hai li bing is a snack made by laying a layer of batter in a ladle, adding minced pork, oysters, shrimp and chives, covering them with more batter and frying the cake in oil. It comes from Fuzhou in coastal Fujian, with Fuqing also mentioned in a 2020 account; one reference entry flags weak sourcing, and none of the three origin accounts gives a date or inventor. Fuzhou people settled in Southeast Asia, and two Singapore stalls date from the 1950s and 1962.
What
Hai li bing is a savory fried cake. A thin layer of batter is laid in a ladle, topped with minced pork, oysters, shrimp and chives, covered with more batter and fried until golden. The batter can be made of ground soybeans and rice; the two reference recipes use wheat flour and rice flour.1,3,4
When
Oysters have long been part of Fuzhou cooking, but no date or inventor was found for the cake's origin. Dates in a 2020 account refer to two Singapore stalls, one from the 1950s and one from 1962.2
Where
Hai li bing comes from Fuzhou in coastal Fujian, with Fuqing also mentioned in accounts of its origin. Fuzhou people settled in Southeast Asia, and Singapore has stalls selling the cake. The southern Fujian oyster omelet (hai li jian, or ke zai jian) is a related but different dish, but the reference entry on it does not mention hai li bing.1,2,3,4,5
How
Heat the ladle, lay in a layer of batter, add the filling, cover it with more batter and lower the ladle into hot oil. Once the cake comes away from the ladle, turn it and fry until golden on both sides.3,4
Why
Oysters have long been part of Fuzhou cooking, but the available sources do not explain why the cake came about.1,2,3,4,5
Impact and influence
Singapore has oyster cake stalls that have run for decades. Available information also mentions local stalls and the 2024 MICHELIN Guide, but gives no details.1,2
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
The version I make at home is the Fuzhou-style cake that is common in Singapore, with a wheat flour batter rather than the soybean-and-rice batter that Wikipedia describes; both recipes I consulted are made that way. The proportions of flour to water and the weights of pork, oysters, shrimp and chives follow one signed recipe, halved, and that recipe says it is adapted from another source; I left out its peanuts and dried anchovies. Frying for about 1 minute before turning also comes from that recipe. The other recipe gives no time, so I go by the cake being golden and the filling cooked through when I cut one open. I make a small batch of about 10, and seasoning the pork with just salt and white pepper is my own choice.
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour 60 g
- Self-rising flour 50 g
- Rice flour 50 g
- Water 250 ml
- Minced pork 100 g
- Salt 1/2 teaspoon, plus 1/4 teaspoon for the batter
- White pepper 1/4 teaspoon
- Shucked oysters 125 g, drained and patted dry
- Shrimp 60 g, peeled and cut into short pieces
- Chives 25 g, cut into 1 cm lengths
- Cooking oil for frying about 600 ml
Steps
- Put the flours and 1/4 teaspoon of salt in a bowl, pour in the water slowly and stir into a smooth, thin batter.
- Mix the minced pork with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the white pepper and let it marinate for 20 minutes.
- Pour the oil into a pot and heat over medium heat. Set a long-handled metal ladle in the oil for about 1 minute to heat it.
- Lift the ladle out of the oil, spread 1 tablespoon of batter in it and add 1 tablespoon of pork, 2 oysters, a few pieces of shrimp and a pinch of chives. Cover with 1 more tablespoon of batter.
- Carefully lower the ladle back into the oil and take it out once the cake comes away. After about 1 minute turn the cake and fry until golden on both sides.
- Lift the cake out, drain it and set it on paper towels. Put the ladle back in the oil to reheat and repeat until the batter is used up, making about 10 cakes.
- Cut open the first cake and check that the pork and shrimp are cooked through, with no pink left, before you carry on.
Tips
- I let the ladle heat in the oil before each cake so the batter does not stick, which is my own habit.
- The ladle and the oil are very hot, so I use a long-handled ladle, keep my hand well away from the oil and make one cake at a time.
Allergens: shellfish, wheat