Street food & snacks · Fujian / Taiwan strait
Oyster Omelette (Ou Ah Jian)
海蛎煎 — Plump small oysters bound in sweet-potato starch and egg, pan-fried till the edges lace into a crisp web, with chili-garlic sauce on top — the street-food…
The technique is the pleasure: sweet-potato starch batter fries into a crisp skirt around a custardy interior, with oysters just warmed through so they stay plump. The sauce is a thin chili ketchup with garlic; the finishing touch is a handful of greens folded in at the end.
Xiamen, Quanzhou and Chaoshan all claim it with local variations, and night markets judge their stalls by this dish. Order one per two people, standing, with a beer — it exists at its best in the first ninety seconds off the flat top.
Where to eat it
- Xiamen night markets (Zhongshan Road side streets)
- Quanzhou street counters
- Chaoshan night markets
Named tables that do it well
- Wu Zai Tian — Local Institution
Routes that eat their way here
More dishes to know
- Buddha Jumps Over the Wall (佛跳墙)
- Sha Cha Noodles (沙茶面)
- Jianbing (煎饼果子)
- Roujiamo (肉夹馍)
- Xinjiang Lamb Skewers (烤羊肉串)
- Cong You Bing (Scallion Pancake) (葱油饼)