Food Hunting Foodie

Fuzhou Oyster Cake – Flavours of History

December 17, 20201614 views0

If you are ever in the vicinity of Maxwell Food Centre, go check out this stall that sells Fuzhou oyster cake. A rare find nowadays.

Maxwell Fuzhou oyster cake.

Tiny snack. Expansive, varied flavours.

Looking like a brown flying saucer, making this unique and delicious snack is hard work. The base is a mix of batter and water.

The batter base is then mixed with a generous serving of varied ingredients consisting of peanuts, fresh oysters, prawns, meat, and spring onions.

Deep-fried in a vat of oil until the outside is deep brown in colour, the snack is then served wrapped in a piece of waxed paper. Where possible, have it fresh, while it’s hot. Surprisingly, though it’s deep-fried in oil, it’s not as greasy as I thought it would be.

So ready to take a bite!

Left wanting more.

The outer crust has got this nice light crunch to it, enhanced by the garnish of peanuts embedded into the battered crust.

The insides are moist, flavourful, bursting with pleasant aromas of the lovely ingredients. The outside crust acted as a sort of sac that protected the components.

A delicious pre-dinner snack! Packed with ingredients!

At the same time, the cooking process steamed these tasty ingredients to bring out the best of each element. I found myself wanting more, but because I have dinner waiting for me, I decided against it, with great reluctance.

As the name suggests, the origin of this dish is from Fuzhou, where there is a rich and abundant supply of seafood. This dish migrated to South Asia along with the people of Fuzhou and became available wherever the community settled.

Rows of oyster cakes. How many would you like? It’s hard to stop at one…

I remembered encountering this delightful snack more during my school days. But, alas, it is now a rare find in Singapore. From what I gathered, there are only two stalls left that sell this.

I hear that the other stall is in Jalan Besar, will definitely make time to go pay that stall a visit as well to compare their differences.

I hope that this unique snack will continue to be available years later. It would be a shame if something with such a long history should disappear into the archives of Singapore’s food culture.