Text by Sheere Ng
@ Makansutra
Oyster omelette is
a wonderful union between soft and moist beaten eggs, and lightly
seared fresh umami oysters. Depending on who and where you buy
from, sometimes, more potato starch is thrown into the combination
to give it a gummy texture. Otherwise, it is pan-fried to crisp or
both, done artfully.
No matter how one
sees an oyster omelette, it looks nothing like a bak chang (rice
dumpling). But did you know 400 years ago, it replaced the rice
dumpling to commemorate the ancient Chinese poet, Qu Yuan?
In 1661, Ming
dynasty chief commander Koxinga led 400 battleships to fight
against the Dutch East India Company which occupied the Island of
Formosa (present day Taiwan). The Dutch colonists, prepared for a
long-standing battle, acquired all the food provisions on the
island beforehand. Koxinga’s troops had no choice but to rely on
foods like sweet potatoes and beans.
Come fifth day of
the fifth month on the lunar calendar, also known as the Duanwu or
Dragon Boat Festival, Koxinga had no grains to prepare rice
dumplings to offer Qu Yuan, who was worshipped as a river god. But
it was an important ceremony for his troops which specialises in
sea battles, so instead they used sweet potato flour, beans sprouts
(mung beans were used on ships to protect the ceramics from
breakage) and oysters and prawns from the surrounding ocean to make
oyster omelette, then referred as 煎䭔(jian dui), according to Casual
Goumet Tainan, a book that features southern Taiwan’s street
food.
Koxinga won the
war in the following year, but a few months later, just three days
after the Duanwu festival, he passed on. To commemorate him, the
commoners in Formosa cooked oyster omelette during the five day of
the fifth lunar month for the next three centuries, before
switching back to rice dumplings.
Today, oyster
omelette, known as 蚵仔煎 in Taiwan, is ubiquitous in the street
markets. Unlike the southeast Asian version, which was introduced
to this part of the world by the Teochew and Fujian immigrants, the
Taiwanese version is doused with a sweet-tangy orangey sauce.