Feature article in TOPICS magazine:
Culinary Tourism in Chiayi
Eat your way across the county, from oysters on the seacoast to “turkey-on-rice” in the city, and Aboriginal fare in the mountains.
BY MARK CALTONHILL
Ask Taiwanese people what they know about the cuisine of Chiayi, a county in south-central Taiwan with a city of the same name, and the only thing most of them will mention is Chiayi turkey on rice (嘉義雞肉飯). This ji-rou-fan is so popular that no night market or cheap student-restaurant area around the island would be complete without a shop or stall offering it.
Actually, most of those eating it aren’t even sure it whether it really is made with chicken, ji-rou (雞肉), as the name suggests, or rather with turkey (huo-ji;火雞). In any case, most people don’t even care, since in its most commonly seen version – a couple of slices of stringy white breast meat on a bowl of lukewarm rice – it is hardly haute cuisine.
[photo] Oysterman throws strings of shells over fixed stakes in bay at Dongshi
[Photo: Woman shelling oysters outside temple in Dongshi displays one ready for the pot]
Three favorite dishes are o-a jhen (蚵仔煎; oyster omelet--see recipe below), o-a su (蚵仔酥; oysters deep-fried in batter), and o-a mi-swa (蚵仔麵線; oysters with bean-flour noodles). Although o-a is really the Hoklo Taiwanese word for oysters, while the Mandarin is hao (蠔) or muli (牡蠣), pretty much everyone on the island has come to use the Taiwanese form, even when speaking Mandarin. This apparently confuses visitors from China, who have been shown on Taiwan television asking for “wa-wa jhen.”
[photo:
Fresh oysters straight from the shell adorn a Donghsi o-a-jhen]
Visitors should seek out roadside restaurants in the small coastal villages, particularly if their authenticity can be confirmed by the sight of elderly women (it always seems to be the job of elderly women) sitting outside shelling oysters. The oyster dishes will be a revelation, even for those who have eaten the same items in Taipei or elsewhere. The oyster in an o-a-jhen at Shilin Night Market, for example, will have been shelled at the coast and stored in water until being scooped out for cooking. While certainly fresh, they will have absorbed water, changing their texture considerably. When cooked, they release the water and the oyster shrinks. Oysters served directly from the sea are firmer and chewier and, of course, fresher.
[photo: Oysterman moors by floating bed and prepares to attach new strings]
Other seafood specialties from the Chiayi coast include clams (蛤蜊; ge-li), which are harvested once a year from mud-bottomed ponds; a seaweed (海菜; hai-cai) that is grown in similar ponds, often together with fish such as milkfish (虱目魚; shi-mu-yu) or tilapia (吳郭魚; wu-guo-yu); dao-a-hee (豆仔魚; “bean fish”), which are actually immature mullet especially fattened by growing in seawater ponds; and eels (鰻魚; man-yu).
[Photo: edible seaweed]
These dishes go well with white asparagus (蘆筍; lu-sun), which in the 1950s and ’60s was grown in almost every field in Dongshi due to the sandy soils. Locally grown asparagus can still be found without much difficulty; it is larger and more succulent than the green variety, but also tends to be more expensive. This is because growing asparagus is labor intensive, so Taiwan cannot compete with imports from China and Southeast Asia. Other crops that have largely disappeared from Chaiyi’s coastal fields in recent years include maize (玉米; yu-mi) and sorghum (高粱; gao-liang).
Another delicacy is the bean-flour noodles (米豆簽; mi-dou-qian) used in o-a-mi-swa and similar dishes, although the restaurant that the late President Chiang Ching-kuo used to frequent in Dongshi Village – and that later heavily publicized that fact – has since ceased operations. To try all these dishes and more under one roof, a visit to the Budai Fish Market (布袋魚市場) is recommended. As usual, if you want to select fish from the wet market and have it cooked for you, be on the lookout for restaurants and stalls advertising 代工 (dai-gong; “on behalf-work”).
[Photo: Deep-fried-fish vendor does brisk business at lunchtime at the Budai Fish Market]
Budai itself is famed for its eels, but also for dried radish (蘿蔔乾; luo-bo-gan in Mandarin, but more commonly菜脯 cai-bo in the Hoklo Taiwanese that is the language of Chiayi). Have a look at the Zhounan saltpans (洲南鹽場) just to the north of Budai. Although salt is no longer made there commercially by being dried in the sun, a small section has been kept to remind visitors of this earlier industry that was closely connected to the county’s culinary needs.
Crossing the plains
From the seventeenth century onward, Chinese peasant farmers from Fujian Province were attracted to the twenty-kilometer-wide strip of fertile plains lying between the coast and the mountains that start to rise from the eastern suburbs of Chiayi City.
[Photo: Demonstration of traditional hand cutting and foot-powered threshing of rice]
“Oysters” are found here too, but this time it is the prized king oyster mushroom, Pleurotus eryngii (杏鮑菇; xing-bao-gu). Grown indoors in dark, cool warehouses, the mushrooms are not visible to casual passersby. Similarly out of sight in large huts but quite often audible are turkeys raised for ji-rou-fan and ducks destined for Chiayi’s almost-as-famous ya-rou-geng (鴨肉羹; duck-meat soup).
[Photo: New mural on old farmhouse wall in rural Xingang]
In this region, the town of Liujiao (六腳; “Six Feet”) lays claim to peanuts; Taibao to tomatoes; Lucao (鹿草; “Deer Grass”) to watermelons and honeydew; Puzi (朴子)to mung beans; and Shuishang (水上; “On the Water”) to lotus seeds.
[Photo: Traditional sweet potato grater]
Many of these food items and others are brought together with sugar – sugarcane was introduced to the area when the Dutch had a colony based in Tainan (1624-1661) – as ingredients for the sweets, cakes, and snacks famous in Xingang. Starting with the simplest niu-she-bing (牛舌餅; “cow tongue biscuits” – from their shape) made from little more than flour and sugar, the shops gradually developed their range to some two dozen items. These now include the rich wu-ren-bing (伍仁餅; “five-nut biscuits” and “double happiness” cakes (囍餅; xi-bing) given at engagements and weddings.
[Photo: Adding peanuts to make Xingang's famous 雙仁潤 (double nut) toffee]
Heading for the hills
[Photo: Mountain field in Alishan Township]
The eastern part of Chiayi comprises foothills and high mountains belonging to the Central Mountain Range. Originally hunting grounds of the Tsou (鄒) and other Aboriginal tribes, the area was inaccessible even long after Han Chinese immigration and remained sparsely populated until construction of a railway in Japanese colonial times. Although the postwar period brought proper roads, it only takes a severe typhoon like last year’s Morakot to sever connections with the outside world. The road to Alishan was closed while this article was being prepared – hence the poor coverage of Aboriginal cuisine – and the train is not expected to be back in service for another couple of years.
The five lower-altitude townships in this region are best known for their fruit: Meishan (梅山; “Plum Mountain”) to the north for its pineapples; Zhuqi (竹崎; “Bamboo Rugged-terrain”) for pears and guava; and Fanlu (番路; “Barbarian Road”) for fresh and dried persimmon; Zhongpu (中埔; “Middle Plains”) for various mushrooms, oranges, and betel nuts; and Dapu (大埔; “Great Plains”) to the south for bamboo shoots and the curious “fragrant manjack” (破布子; po-bu-zi).
Po-bu-zi, also known as shu-zi (樹子; “tree seeds”), are the fruit of a small tree in the cordia family, which are pickled and used as a flavoring for other foods, most commonly fish. Coincidentally, Dapu is the home of the Zengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫), whose cool waters are said to produce excellent freshwater fish.
[Photo: Tea picking on an Alishan hillside]
Finally, at the eastern extreme and highest altitudes of Chiayi County is the massive, sprawling Alishan Township. The former hunting grounds are still largely covered by forests, but since the construction of roads its agriculture has developed. In particular, its “high mountain oolong teas” (高山烏龍茶) have a world-class reputation.
[Photo: Tea picking in Alishan]
[Photo: Tea leaves are sorted for drying]
Less well known is that it now produces coffee too. In fact, locals claim that much of this ends up over the Yunlin County border, where it is passed off as Gukeng (古坑) coffee, since Gukeng Township has the bragging rights to coffee just as Chiayi does to chicken-on-rice.
Aboriginal fare is available at restaurants and roadside stalls. Typical items include barbequed boar and fish, barrel-cooked chicken (桶仔雞), bird’s nest fern (山蘇), and millet wine (小米酒).
[Photo: Roadside Aboriginal grill in Alishan Township]
Alishan is also respected for its high-altitude vegetables, whose slow growth is said to make them tastier, its free-range (and possibly organic) chickens, as well as oddities like shan-kuei (山葵), better known as wasabi since the Japanese sushi paste is made from its root.
[Photo: An Alishan farmer carries a wasabi plant]
Other unusual delicacies include “tomorrow leaf” (明日葉), actually Angelica keiskei, for which anticancer claims are made; “tree tomatoes” (樹番茄), Cyphomandra betacea, which does indeed grow in trees and taste, but not look, somewhat like a tomato; and the above-mentioned “love jade.”
[Photo: Bird eating seeds from ripe ai-yu fruit]
This last, Ficus pumila var. awkeotsang, a member of the fig family, has dark green fruit that hangs down from trees, attracting birds to feed on their numerous seeds after they have ripened and split open. Indigenous to this mountainous region of Taiwan – despite various fanciful etymologies, its Chinese name most likely derives from a local Aboriginal word – it was long ago found to make a tasty and cooling jelly by rubbing the seeds in water and then allowing the water to solidify.
[Photo: Dried ai-yu fruit]
Back in the city
And what about Chiayi City itself? Well, the number of ji-rou-fan restaurants is simply staggering. The citizens really do eat it by the thousands of bowlfuls a day. For locals it is the basic economy dish, much like lu-rou-fan (滷肉飯; “marinated meat [on] rice”) or zha-jiang-mian (炸醬麵; “fried sauce noodles”) elsewhere. But pay a little extra, say NT$50-60 per bowl, and you’ll find out why it is so popular. Instead of the stringy bits of poultry meat, it comes with slices of either lean or fatty meat (雞肉片) with a hunk of pickled turnip and some greens. And is it chicken or turkey? Turkey, say most locals, or better still, a mixture of the two.
[Photo: Gravy is added to a bowl of Chiayi turkey on rice]
Cook It Yourself:
Culinary Tourism in Chiayi
Eat your way across the county, from oysters on the seacoast to “turkey-on-rice” in the city, and Aboriginal fare in the mountains.
BY MARK CALTONHILL
Ask Taiwanese people what they know about the cuisine of Chiayi, a county in south-central Taiwan with a city of the same name, and the only thing most of them will mention is Chiayi turkey on rice (嘉義雞肉飯). This ji-rou-fan is so popular that no night market or cheap student-restaurant area around the island would be complete without a shop or stall offering it.
Actually, most of those eating it aren’t even sure it whether it really is made with chicken, ji-rou (雞肉), as the name suggests, or rather with turkey (huo-ji;火雞). In any case, most people don’t even care, since in its most commonly seen version – a couple of slices of stringy white breast meat on a bowl of lukewarm rice – it is hardly haute cuisine.
This lack of knowledge is a great shame – first because the average NT$30 bowl of so-called Chiayi ji-rou-fan is a far cry from the way it is served in Chiayi itself, but also because the county of Chiayi (pronounced jia-ee despite the ch carried over from an earlier Romanization system) has a lot more to offer in the way of good food.
Located to the north of the historic capital of Tainan, Chiayi – then known as Zhuluo (諸羅; from its Aboriginal name Tsirosen) – was one of the earliest parts of Taiwan to be settled by Han Chinese, and its current inhabitants have a strong sense of tradition. The county extends a mere 25 kilometers from the Tainan County border on the south to Yunlin County on the north, but it is a much more spacious 80 kilometers west to east – from its coastal townships of Budai (布袋; “Cloth Bag”) and Dongshi (東石; “Eastern Stone”), through the agricultural plains of Xingang (新港; “New Port”) and Taibao (太保; derived from an official title), to the high mountains of Alishan (阿里山; “Ali Mountain”).
[Photo: Traditional farmhouses are common throughout Chiayi County]
Located to the north of the historic capital of Tainan, Chiayi – then known as Zhuluo (諸羅; from its Aboriginal name Tsirosen) – was one of the earliest parts of Taiwan to be settled by Han Chinese, and its current inhabitants have a strong sense of tradition. The county extends a mere 25 kilometers from the Tainan County border on the south to Yunlin County on the north, but it is a much more spacious 80 kilometers west to east – from its coastal townships of Budai (布袋; “Cloth Bag”) and Dongshi (東石; “Eastern Stone”), through the agricultural plains of Xingang (新港; “New Port”) and Taibao (太保; derived from an official title), to the high mountains of Alishan (阿里山; “Ali Mountain”).
[Photo: Traditional farmhouses are common throughout Chiayi County]The very mention of some Chiayi place names generally prompts thoughts about the county’s cuisine. Dongshi is famed for its oysters, and among older Taiwanese, for its asparagus; Budai is known for its eels; Xingang is famous for its cakes and pastries; and Alishan has its tea, Aboriginal cuisine, and something exotic called ai-yu (愛玉), which translates literally as “love jade.”
Starting on the coast
Chiayi has the second-largest seafood harvest among Taiwan’s 18 counties, averaging around 50,000 tons per year and worth in excess of NT$6 billion (US$185 million).
If the piles of oyster shells stacked up along Dongshi’s roadsides are anything to go by, a large part of this produce is ostrea bivalves. Oyster-related jobs certainly dominate the local economy, with aquafarmers renting beds from the government in the bay and further out to sea, where they then erect poles or anchor platforms with wires strung between. The strings of old shells hung from the wires attract young oysters already present in the seawater, and within six or nine months they are harvested simply by lifting the strings from the water. In recent years, some Chiayi oystermen have attempted to cater to the more lucrative half-shell trade, but this takes approximately three years for a harvest and requires a higher quality of clear water, so to date they have not been successful.
[photo] Oysterman throws strings of shells over fixed stakes in bay at DongshiA visit to Chiayi is not complete without a boat trip out to see the beds – as well as local birdlife and, if your timing is good, a beautiful sunset. The trip costs around NT$600 (US$18.50) per person and includes lunch.Not surprisingly, oyster dishes similarly dominate Chiayi menus, particularly but not exclusively in the coastal townships. (Oyster shells even dominate local art, strung together as curtains or joined to form sculptures).
[Photo: Woman shelling oysters outside temple in Dongshi displays one ready for the pot]
Three favorite dishes are o-a jhen (蚵仔煎; oyster omelet--see recipe below), o-a su (蚵仔酥; oysters deep-fried in batter), and o-a mi-swa (蚵仔麵線; oysters with bean-flour noodles). Although o-a is really the Hoklo Taiwanese word for oysters, while the Mandarin is hao (蠔) or muli (牡蠣), pretty much everyone on the island has come to use the Taiwanese form, even when speaking Mandarin. This apparently confuses visitors from China, who have been shown on Taiwan television asking for “wa-wa jhen.”
[photo:
Fresh oysters straight from the shell adorn a Donghsi o-a-jhen]Visitors should seek out roadside restaurants in the small coastal villages, particularly if their authenticity can be confirmed by the sight of elderly women (it always seems to be the job of elderly women) sitting outside shelling oysters. The oyster dishes will be a revelation, even for those who have eaten the same items in Taipei or elsewhere. The oyster in an o-a-jhen at Shilin Night Market, for example, will have been shelled at the coast and stored in water until being scooped out for cooking. While certainly fresh, they will have absorbed water, changing their texture considerably. When cooked, they release the water and the oyster shrinks. Oysters served directly from the sea are firmer and chewier and, of course, fresher.
[photo: Oysterman moors by floating bed and prepares to attach new strings]Other seafood specialties from the Chiayi coast include clams (蛤蜊; ge-li), which are harvested once a year from mud-bottomed ponds; a seaweed (海菜; hai-cai) that is grown in similar ponds, often together with fish such as milkfish (虱目魚; shi-mu-yu) or tilapia (吳郭魚; wu-guo-yu); dao-a-hee (豆仔魚; “bean fish”), which are actually immature mullet especially fattened by growing in seawater ponds; and eels (鰻魚; man-yu).
[Photo: edible seaweed]These dishes go well with white asparagus (蘆筍; lu-sun), which in the 1950s and ’60s was grown in almost every field in Dongshi due to the sandy soils. Locally grown asparagus can still be found without much difficulty; it is larger and more succulent than the green variety, but also tends to be more expensive. This is because growing asparagus is labor intensive, so Taiwan cannot compete with imports from China and Southeast Asia. Other crops that have largely disappeared from Chaiyi’s coastal fields in recent years include maize (玉米; yu-mi) and sorghum (高粱; gao-liang).
Another delicacy is the bean-flour noodles (米豆簽; mi-dou-qian) used in o-a-mi-swa and similar dishes, although the restaurant that the late President Chiang Ching-kuo used to frequent in Dongshi Village – and that later heavily publicized that fact – has since ceased operations. To try all these dishes and more under one roof, a visit to the Budai Fish Market (布袋魚市場) is recommended. As usual, if you want to select fish from the wet market and have it cooked for you, be on the lookout for restaurants and stalls advertising 代工 (dai-gong; “on behalf-work”).
[Photo: Deep-fried-fish vendor does brisk business at lunchtime at the Budai Fish Market]Budai itself is famed for its eels, but also for dried radish (蘿蔔乾; luo-bo-gan in Mandarin, but more commonly菜脯 cai-bo in the Hoklo Taiwanese that is the language of Chiayi). Have a look at the Zhounan saltpans (洲南鹽場) just to the north of Budai. Although salt is no longer made there commercially by being dried in the sun, a small section has been kept to remind visitors of this earlier industry that was closely connected to the county’s culinary needs.
Crossing the plains
From the seventeenth century onward, Chinese peasant farmers from Fujian Province were attracted to the twenty-kilometer-wide strip of fertile plains lying between the coast and the mountains that start to rise from the eastern suburbs of Chiayi City.
[Photo: Demonstration of traditional hand cutting and foot-powered threshing of rice]“Oysters” are found here too, but this time it is the prized king oyster mushroom, Pleurotus eryngii (杏鮑菇; xing-bao-gu). Grown indoors in dark, cool warehouses, the mushrooms are not visible to casual passersby. Similarly out of sight in large huts but quite often audible are turkeys raised for ji-rou-fan and ducks destined for Chiayi’s almost-as-famous ya-rou-geng (鴨肉羹; duck-meat soup).
[Photo: New mural on old farmhouse wall in rural Xingang]In this region, the town of Liujiao (六腳; “Six Feet”) lays claim to peanuts; Taibao to tomatoes; Lucao (鹿草; “Deer Grass”) to watermelons and honeydew; Puzi (朴子)to mung beans; and Shuishang (水上; “On the Water”) to lotus seeds.
[Photo: Traditional sweet potato grater]Many of these food items and others are brought together with sugar – sugarcane was introduced to the area when the Dutch had a colony based in Tainan (1624-1661) – as ingredients for the sweets, cakes, and snacks famous in Xingang. Starting with the simplest niu-she-bing (牛舌餅; “cow tongue biscuits” – from their shape) made from little more than flour and sugar, the shops gradually developed their range to some two dozen items. These now include the rich wu-ren-bing (伍仁餅; “five-nut biscuits” and “double happiness” cakes (囍餅; xi-bing) given at engagements and weddings.
[Photo: Adding peanuts to make Xingang's famous 雙仁潤 (double nut) toffee]Heading for the hills
[Photo: Mountain field in Alishan Township]The eastern part of Chiayi comprises foothills and high mountains belonging to the Central Mountain Range. Originally hunting grounds of the Tsou (鄒) and other Aboriginal tribes, the area was inaccessible even long after Han Chinese immigration and remained sparsely populated until construction of a railway in Japanese colonial times. Although the postwar period brought proper roads, it only takes a severe typhoon like last year’s Morakot to sever connections with the outside world. The road to Alishan was closed while this article was being prepared – hence the poor coverage of Aboriginal cuisine – and the train is not expected to be back in service for another couple of years.
The five lower-altitude townships in this region are best known for their fruit: Meishan (梅山; “Plum Mountain”) to the north for its pineapples; Zhuqi (竹崎; “Bamboo Rugged-terrain”) for pears and guava; and Fanlu (番路; “Barbarian Road”) for fresh and dried persimmon; Zhongpu (中埔; “Middle Plains”) for various mushrooms, oranges, and betel nuts; and Dapu (大埔; “Great Plains”) to the south for bamboo shoots and the curious “fragrant manjack” (破布子; po-bu-zi).
Po-bu-zi, also known as shu-zi (樹子; “tree seeds”), are the fruit of a small tree in the cordia family, which are pickled and used as a flavoring for other foods, most commonly fish. Coincidentally, Dapu is the home of the Zengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫), whose cool waters are said to produce excellent freshwater fish.
[Photo: Tea picking on an Alishan hillside]Finally, at the eastern extreme and highest altitudes of Chiayi County is the massive, sprawling Alishan Township. The former hunting grounds are still largely covered by forests, but since the construction of roads its agriculture has developed. In particular, its “high mountain oolong teas” (高山烏龍茶) have a world-class reputation.
[Photo: Tea picking in Alishan]
[Photo: Tea leaves are sorted for drying]Less well known is that it now produces coffee too. In fact, locals claim that much of this ends up over the Yunlin County border, where it is passed off as Gukeng (古坑) coffee, since Gukeng Township has the bragging rights to coffee just as Chiayi does to chicken-on-rice.
Aboriginal fare is available at restaurants and roadside stalls. Typical items include barbequed boar and fish, barrel-cooked chicken (桶仔雞), bird’s nest fern (山蘇), and millet wine (小米酒).
[Photo: Roadside Aboriginal grill in Alishan Township]Alishan is also respected for its high-altitude vegetables, whose slow growth is said to make them tastier, its free-range (and possibly organic) chickens, as well as oddities like shan-kuei (山葵), better known as wasabi since the Japanese sushi paste is made from its root.
[Photo: An Alishan farmer carries a wasabi plant]
Other unusual delicacies include “tomorrow leaf” (明日葉), actually Angelica keiskei, for which anticancer claims are made; “tree tomatoes” (樹番茄), Cyphomandra betacea, which does indeed grow in trees and taste, but not look, somewhat like a tomato; and the above-mentioned “love jade.”
[Photo: Bird eating seeds from ripe ai-yu fruit]This last, Ficus pumila var. awkeotsang, a member of the fig family, has dark green fruit that hangs down from trees, attracting birds to feed on their numerous seeds after they have ripened and split open. Indigenous to this mountainous region of Taiwan – despite various fanciful etymologies, its Chinese name most likely derives from a local Aboriginal word – it was long ago found to make a tasty and cooling jelly by rubbing the seeds in water and then allowing the water to solidify.
[Photo: Dried ai-yu fruit]Back in the city
And what about Chiayi City itself? Well, the number of ji-rou-fan restaurants is simply staggering. The citizens really do eat it by the thousands of bowlfuls a day. For locals it is the basic economy dish, much like lu-rou-fan (滷肉飯; “marinated meat [on] rice”) or zha-jiang-mian (炸醬麵; “fried sauce noodles”) elsewhere. But pay a little extra, say NT$50-60 per bowl, and you’ll find out why it is so popular. Instead of the stringy bits of poultry meat, it comes with slices of either lean or fatty meat (雞肉片) with a hunk of pickled turnip and some greens. And is it chicken or turkey? Turkey, say most locals, or better still, a mixture of the two.
[Photo: Gravy is added to a bowl of Chiayi turkey on rice]Cook It Yourself:
Oyster omelet (蚵仔煎)
Ingredients:8-12 oysters (蚵仔),Handful of leafy greens, typically 茼蒿菜 (Chrysanthemum coronarium; crown daisy) but something like bok choi (小白菜) is fine too;Egg (雞蛋),
1 cup sweet potato powder (地瓜粉; a form of tapioca; to make it crunchier), 2/3 cup potato starch (太白粉; to make it all stick together), 2 1/2 cups water (水), Pinch of white pepper (白胡椒粉)
Sauce ingredients:4 tsp. sweet and spicy sauce (甜辣醬), 2 tsp. soy sauce paste (醬油膏), 2 tsp. tomato ketchup (蕃茄醬), 1 cup water (水), pinch of starch (太白粉)
[standard recipes also call for 1 tsp. MSG (味噌) and 4 tsp. sugar (糖), but these can be omitted].
Method:
Wash the oysters with water and a little salt, drain.
Chop the leafy greens.
Mix the tapioca, starch, water and pepper to create a sticky paste.
Heat small amount of oil in frying pan, add oysters, and cook over low flame, turning 2-3 times.
Break egg over them, add small handful of chopped greens.
When cooked, add tablespoon of starch mix to bind. Turn and cook the other side. Serve with a splash of pink made from the sauce ingredients mixed.
[Photo: Mural on Chiayi City school shows traditional fishing method]
Ingredients:8-12 oysters (蚵仔),Handful of leafy greens, typically 茼蒿菜 (Chrysanthemum coronarium; crown daisy) but something like bok choi (小白菜) is fine too;Egg (雞蛋),
1 cup sweet potato powder (地瓜粉; a form of tapioca; to make it crunchier), 2/3 cup potato starch (太白粉; to make it all stick together), 2 1/2 cups water (水), Pinch of white pepper (白胡椒粉)
Sauce ingredients:4 tsp. sweet and spicy sauce (甜辣醬), 2 tsp. soy sauce paste (醬油膏), 2 tsp. tomato ketchup (蕃茄醬), 1 cup water (水), pinch of starch (太白粉)
[standard recipes also call for 1 tsp. MSG (味噌) and 4 tsp. sugar (糖), but these can be omitted].
Method:
Wash the oysters with water and a little salt, drain.
Chop the leafy greens.
Mix the tapioca, starch, water and pepper to create a sticky paste.
Heat small amount of oil in frying pan, add oysters, and cook over low flame, turning 2-3 times.
Break egg over them, add small handful of chopped greens.
When cooked, add tablespoon of starch mix to bind. Turn and cook the other side. Serve with a splash of pink made from the sauce ingredients mixed.
[Photo: Mural on Chiayi City school shows traditional fishing method]
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