Oyster omelette - Orh Jian (蚝煎)

Orh jian – an oyster omelette in Hokkien, is a dish which composed of plump, dainty oysters fried with eggs. This humble dish can be found across Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

It is a big favourite in Taiwan’s bustling night markets, where vendor cook it on big, flat cast iron hot plates over roaring fires. The orh jian in Taipei is served with a lot of vegetables and the orh jian is soaked in a sauce paste.

In Singapore and Malaysia, orh jian is commonly found in most hawker centres and food courts. Apart from the basic duo of eggs and oysters, most cooks use form of starch as a binder, to give the dish its characteristic texture and smoothness. Of course, every stall has its own secret recipe, and there will be variation from one to another. One key distinction from the Taiwanese version, while the inner is still soft and tender, the orh jian here has a firmer and crispy coating. For oyster omelette, size does matter, only small to medium size oysters will be used. Well, not the stalls are stingy, but big oysters could overwhelm the delicate eggy taste.

Squeeze a lime, dig with some unique chilli sauce (taste a bit sour), you can taste the sourness and sweetness in the ‘crispy’ oyster omelette. Ah, what a luscious eggy one-dish meal studded with small, briny specimens from the sea…

The orh jian in picture was taken at
Sunshine place,
Choa Chu Kang Ave 4,
Singapore