Oysters

[mcohen]

In my lifetime, I've eaten so many chinese meals that I'm sure I must be part chinese by now.

But, I was at a 99 Ranch store and noticed they were selling shell oysters. However, I can't ever recall eating oysters in a chinese restaurant.

In chinese cuisine, other than using them for oyster sauce, what do they do with oysters? Are there any chinese dishes I could make at home using oysters?

[Sher.eats]

The fresh ones can be

- Battered and fried

- Lightly battered, then "baked" in a hot casserole with ginger/chive/garlic with a demi glace of sorts; sometimes with port

Baby oysters

- Added to Chiu Chow style congee

- Added to Chiu Chow "omelettes"

Semi sun dried "Golden Oysters" - where the outside is dried but the inside is still "creamy"

- Steamed

- Lightly pan fried

- Bbaked in a "pot with rice"

- Honey roasted like cha siu

Full sun dried, then rehydrated

- Added to congee

- Stews

- Stir fried with vermicelli

Edited April 15, 2010 by Sher.eats (log)

[hzrt8w]

But, I was at a 99 Ranch store and noticed they were selling shell oysters. However, I can't ever recall eating oysters in a chinese restaurant.

Oysters may not be offered in Americanized Chinese restaurants. They are quite common in Hong Kong style Cantonese restaurants.

The live oysters in shells are probably steamed with shell on. Black beans and smashed garlic. Or green onions with soy sauce on top.

Oysters (shelled) are usually stir-fried with ginger/green onions, or deep-fried in batter with salt and pepper, or cooked in a clay pot with roast pork slices and tofu.

[dcarch]

I made deep fried oysters

dcarch

[Kent Wang]

hzrt8w has posted some pictorial recipes with oysters, including a hot pot, as I recall.

Do Chinese eat raw oysters?

Where do oysters in China come from? Do they grow all over the northern coasts? I wonder if they are a bit less safe than Western ones as I'm wary of the weaker environmental and food protection laws there.

[hzrt8w]

Do Chinese eat raw oysters?

Where do oysters in China come from? Do they grow all over the northern coasts?

I have not seen raw oysters offered in any Chinese style restaurant that I have visited.

Chinese fishermen raise oysters in muddy, shallow coasts or bays. For example in Hong Kong, where I grew up, they raise oysters at Lau Fau Shan. I would imagine they probably have similar oyster farms in many other coastal regions in China.

[jo-mel]

A couple or so Hong Kong style restaurants feature "Skewered Oysters with Black Pepper Sauce". Often the word "Sizzling" is used. When Black Pepper Sauce Beef came along, these oysters followed and they are absolutely wonderful! Often served on a sizzling platter, and swimming in a great black pepper sauce with lots of onions. It is a favorite of mine. I find them here in No. NJ, but they are in NYC also and a google can lead you to more.

When the 'new' Hong Kong style chefs came to be, this was one of their finest dishes-- IMMHO.

[Kent Wang]

On the street, you can find vendors grilling oysters (and scallops, mussels, clams) topped with a bit of sauce and a mount of minced garlic.

[hzrt8w]

On the street, you can find vendors grilling oysters (and scallops, mussels, clams) topped with a bit of sauce and a mount of minced garlic.

Was that so in Shanghai? Or which city/region?

I have not seen such in the streets of Hong Kong (grilling oysters/scallops/mussels/clams).

[plum tart]

A Chinese student from Fujian cooked little oysters in an omelet mixture with a little green onion. The omelet was a little bit crispy. They were delicious and I have since found a recipe for them in a Chinese cookbook. I have never seen them on a Chinese restaurant menu however. Is anyone familiar with this dish?

[Kent Wang]

On the street, you can find vendors grilling oysters (and scallops, mussels, clams) topped with a bit of sauce and a mount of minced garlic.

Was that so in Shanghai? Or which city/region?

I have not seen such in the streets of Hong Kong (grilling oysters/scallops/mussels/clams).

Shanghai, yes. I would've guessed that it would be common everywhere though.

[jsager01]

A Chinese student from Fujian cooked little oysters in an omelet mixture with a little green onion. The omelet was a little bit crispy. They were delicious and I have since found a recipe for them in a Chinese cookbook. I have never seen them on a Chinese restaurant menu however. Is anyone familiar with this dish?

It is hawker/street food supposedly originating from Fujian province in China and known as Oh Chien (fried oysters), and has spread with the Fujianese/Hokkien diaspora to Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. It is also popular as a Chaozhou/Teochew street food in the same countries, and known as O Luak. I guess your best bet for finding it in a Chinese restuarant in US or europe is a Taiwanese restuarant serving 'authentic basic home cooking'.

As with most Street food in that part of the world, there are as many variations of the recipe as there are street vendors, hawkers or stalls in the more upscale food courts - just google for 'recipes Oh Chien' and you will know what i mean. It is an omelette, or pancake if you like, and usually cooked in a flat bottomed frypan instead of a wok.

The basic ingredients are a thin batter of some starch or combination of starches, usually Chinese sweet potato startch (which is totally different from the North American sweet potato), regular potato starch, tapioca starch, or rice flour. This is usually the first ingredient that goes into the well oiled (and my usually reliable source says that it must be lard, to be authentic) frypan. Then the eggs, and finally the oysters. A somewhat sweet Chilli sauce (eg sriracha) chives, spring onions (scallions), cilantro, and fish sauce would complete my list of ingredients.

The texture should be slightly sticky, stretchy but crispy at the edges, mainly from the batter. The oysters provide a contrasting texture of being soft, juicy and full of flavor. And i guess the eggs just binds the two together in terms of texture and taste/flavor.

The oysters in Oh Chien or O Luak are about 2 cms in length, ie much smaller than oysters you normally get in europe or north america. I find that the smaller of the so-called european flat oysters are a good substitute. However, i have been known to cut up large oysters, and they seem to work ok.

[liuzhou]

The grilled oysters are here in every street market in Guangxi, too. Lightly grilled and covered in garlic and chilli. Often with some vermicelli, too.

[nakji]

Those look succulent....if you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for a plate of those?

[liuzhou]

About ¥10 - ¥12. Next to nothing.

[Ben Hong]

"Ho see sung".

No Chinese New Year's dinner would be complete without this dish. Oysters, dried or fresh, is of the class of "good fortune foods" that is "de rigueur" at festive occasions.

[liuzhou]

Here is the version of the (very common) oysters with vermicelli which I mentioned

And grilled scallops (Zhongshan Road Night Market, Nanning, China)

And finally, the selection of seafood (and other stuff)waiting to be grilled. (One of many similar stalls on Zhongshan Road Night Market, Nanning, China)

Edited November 29, 2010 by liuzhou (log)