Famous Lian Huan Oyster Omelette Pancake at Zhongshan Street in Xiamen 莲欢海蛎煎

莲欢海蛎煎 Lian Huan Oyster Omelette | Zhongshanlu Street, 中山路商圈 Siming District, Xiamen, Fujian, China ☎ +86 592 203 5236 🕗 8am - 10pm

In Xiamen, you will find 海蛎煎 or "fried oyster" stalls everywhere. Most restaurants also have 海蛎煎 the iconic dish on their menu.

We asked a local for recommendations and she kindly drew a map for us 😊

On the main strip of Zhongshan Pedestrian Street, find the big tree and turn into 局口街 (a shop lined lane). Once inside the lane, ask the people there for directions to 莲欢海蛎煎.

Clear enough.

We need to turn into another lane - darker, narrower at #42 局口街. We walked past and missed it the first time.

Found it! Thanks to local help.

About 30 metres inside the dark narrow lane, it opened up to a brighter space with a couple of food stalls, including 莲欢海蛎煎.

The lane stall was an open kitchen where the oyster omelette / pancakes were prepared.

The set up reminded me somewhat of the famous oyster omelette stall at Johor Bahru's Meldrum Walk back lane stalls.

There were traditional kindergarten stool seats and tables (which I prefer).

Two small dining rooms with normal / regular table and chairs.

The oyster omelette is made with oyster, scallion, sweet potato starch and eggs.

The oyster omelette cost RMB30 per serving. We had two servings which was a bit too much for three of us.

The medium size oysters were daily fresh from nearby Tong'an district. Soft tender milky creamy to the bite with a gentle savoury sweet taste.

There were many chunky, tender, chewy pieces of fried sweet potato starch (made with sweet potatoes from Fujian's Hui'an county). 莲欢海蛎煎's rendition is more traditional than the Singapore / Malaysia versions - original oyster pancake is made with just oysters and sweet potato starch.

I enjoyed the gummy soft tender chewy texture of the fried sweet potato starch. Flavour was savoury from soy sauce and probably fish sauce. A nice little bit of char and caramelised taste too.

Slightly less eggy than the Singapore and Malaysian versions of oyster omelette.