Oyster Omelette

海蛎煎 / 蚵仔煎

cooking
Published

January 18, 2025

Oyster omelette (蚵仔煎) is a popular street food in Minnan region of China and Taiwan. It has different versions: Xiamen-style and Taiwan-style. We focus on Xiamen-style which I learned in Xiamen in the first place. Taiwan-style is in the variations chapter.

Ingredients

Main

Serve 2 people:

  • Oyster meat: around 15
  • Sweet potato starch: around 100g
  • Garlic sprouts: 2
  • Eggs: 2

Seasonings

  • White pepper powder

  • Light soy sauce

  • Salt

Method

It’s basically a pan-fry oyster omelette mixed with starch, vegetables and eggs.

Prepare

  1. Slice the garlic sprouts.
  2. Mix oyster meat with 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 2 tbsp of salt, 2 tbsp of white pepper powder.
  3. Add the starch and water slowly, stir with hand until you find the solid stuff can be coated with starch water but not too thick.
  4. Beat the eggs. Set aside.
Note

White pepper is very important in this dish. It . Make sure use a generous amount of white pepper.

Cook

  1. Heat some oil.
Tip

More oil as it’s an omelette pan-fry thing.

  1. Pour the mixture on the pan, spread and fry it for some minutes until it’s shaped into a omelette. Turn once.
  2. Fold the omelette into 3 folds.
  3. Pour the beaten eggs on the omelette. Pan fry the egg until cooked.
  4. Use your spatula to slice the omelette to better serve.

Variations

Flour-mixed

The starch can mixed with some flour, if you don’t have enough starch. It should be at most half starch, half flour. This gives you a less chewy texture.

Taiwan-style

TBC.

Serving Suggestions

Dipping sauce:

  • For the Xiamen-style: dip with Xiamen Haidi Chilli Sauce, which is a very common sauce for local Xiamen people. You can buy it online in China.
  • For the Taiwan-style: TBC.
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