My craving for Taiwanese Oyster Omelette is real. I am missing Taiwan badly, especially the food. Taiwanese Oyster Omelette is a popular street eats that is distinctive in its crispy gooey base and the sweet tangy sauce.

Back when I was living in New York, I could buy fresh shucked oysters in Chinese supermarkets. They’d be in plastic cups nestled inside crushed ice, in the seafood department next to the fresh fish, crabs, and a variety of other shellfish. For years, I have been looking for fresh shucked oysters in Singapore and asked so many people about it. The only recommendation they gave me at the time was to get raw oysters from seafood distributors. That would involve me shucking the oysters myself too so it wasn’t ideal.

Imagine my delight when I was told that NTUC Fairprice finally has frozen raw oyster meat and it is super affordable. A pack of 300g cost only $3.95 – WHATTTTTTTT! It took me a while to find it but when I did, I was ready to make some Taiwanese Oyster Omelette.

The key in a delicious plate of Taiwanese Oyster Omelette is the crispy gooey base. It’s made of starch slurry and it is challenging to get the type of starches/flours and the ratio correct. I have experimented several times and to be honest, I’ll need to tweak the recipe below and adjust the ratio further but it’s close enough for the time being.

The other thing is the sauce. It has to be salty, sweet, and tangy all at once. To be authentic, you will need to use soy sauce paste (醬油膏). It is thicker than regular soy sauce and has a slightly sweeter taste. I got mine from Taiwan, but you can also pick up a similar soy sauce paste from Shopee SG. Flavor-wise, I think the sauce recipe below nails it but not so much the color. I’d have liked the sauce to take on a reddish appearance instead of dark brown.

Taiwanese Oyster Omelette

2 eggs
oysters, fresh or frozen-thawed
chinese chives or spinach
2 Tbs cornstarch
1 Tbs sweet potato flour
2 Tbs plain flour
130 ml water
pinch of chicken bouillon
pinch of white pepper
pinch of salt
pinch of sugar
1 Tbs cooking oil

Sauce
2 Tbs cooking oil
3 Tbs ketchup
1 Tbs soy sauce paste
2 Tbs sugar
2 tsp soy bean paste
50 ml water

1. Heat cooking oil in a pan.
2. Mix cornstarch, sweet potato flour, plain flour, water, chicken bouillon, white pepper, salt, sugar in a bowl.
3. Pour the starch-flour mixture evenly into the pan. It will begin to sizzle and air bubbles will start forming.
4. Increase the heat so that the starch-flour mixture begins to brown along the edges like a translucent thin pancake.
5. Crack the eggs into a bowl and mix well.
6. Pour the eggs over the starch-flour base and lower the heat.
7. Use spatula to slightly tear the starch-flour pancake so that the eggs can seep into it.
7. Scatter the chinese chives or spinach on top.
8. Put the oysters over this and cover the pan for 2 minutes.
9. Turn off heat and plate the completed omelette.
10. In a separate pan, combine all sauce ingredients and simmer to a boil.
10. Serve omelette and sauce together.

It’s a huge bummer that I have not been able to travel to Taiwan for almost two years. I really miss Taiwanese food! A plate of this crispy, gooey, fluffy omelette dotted with succulent oysters, blanketed with the salty sweet tangy sauce is one of my comfort foods. Try out this Taiwanese Oyster Omelette recipe and let me know what you think.