Taiwan street food: Taiwanese oyster omelette 蚵仔煎

People seem to like Taiwanese Street Food a lot, street food is a big part of Taiwanese culture. This is one of the most famous street foods – Taiwanese oyster omelette 蚵仔煎. If you like oysters or seafood, this is a great choice for you, if you like omelettes too then you’ve hit the jackpot! This omelette isn’t exactly the same as one of the western style omelettes it doesn’t just rely on egg to make the ‘pancake’ – the flour and water mixture is about half of the material in the omelette itself. Add to this the vegetables and finish with the special ‘secret’ sauce – Joanne shows you her secret sauce for this classic street food!

Oyster Omelette, fresh out of the pan

Oyster Omelette and sauce ingredients

The ingredients (for 2 people/omelettes) 食材;

• SAUCE
• 250ml water
• half spring onion
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 2 tbsp sweet chili
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp sour plum powder 酸梅粉
• 1 tbsp flour to thicken
• OMELETTE
• 200g oysters
• 2 eggs
• 275ml water
• 6 tbsp sweet potato flour
• lard
• 3 tbsp tapioca (or corn) flour
• ginger, spring onion, garlic
• fish sauce
• green vegetables

The method 作法;

1. Start with the sauce. Get all your ingredients together in the amounts shown.
2. Heat up the flour in a frying pan and add a little oil, keep stirring
3. Now add about half of the water into the frying pan
4. when it’s bubbling add all the rest of the sauce ingredients into the pan
5. check the thickness of the sauce, if it’s too thick for you add some more water, if not, that’s OK, we made it like ketchup thickness, then we put it through a sieve to make it smooth
6. set the sauce aside now, in a warm place, we are going to make the omelette
7. in a frying pan melt a little lard, just so the pan bottom has been covered thinly
8. add a little of the garlic, ginger and spring onion on a medium heat
9. add the oysters, about 8 to 12 pieces
10. after a few minutes they are cooking nicely and you will add a dash of fish sauce
11. now add about 3 or 4 tbsp of the 2 flours mixed with the 275ml water
12. when it starts to set but is still a bit wet on top add some of your vegetables – we used a handful of rocket leaves
13. pour a beaten egg over the vegetables on the omelette
14. cover the frying pan with a lid so the steam cooks the veg
15. once it’s a bit more solid, flip the omelette and cook it about 1 minute
16. put the omelette on a plate and serve with the sauce we prepared earlier, as much or as little as you like – taste first to check the strength of the sauce. We hope you enjoy this authentic Taiwanese dish!

oyster omelette with special secret sauce on

Joanne has recorded a Taiwanese oyster omelette 蚵仔煎 cooking video so you can see and follow the timings, chopping sizes, and method step by step, as she prepares this Taiwan Street Food classic. Hope you like it, we were delighted with the flavours!

How to make Taiwan street food: Taiwanese oyster omelette 蚵仔煎, cooking video

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