Ah Chuan Toa Payoh Fried Oyster Omelette • Orh Chien 阿泉蠔煎

I was finishing up my plate of mediocre wanton mee when I noticed the couple sharing the table with me enjoying a plate of delicious looking orh chien. Overcome with orh chien envy, I thought to myself, "I have to have that too".



So, I joined the queue at Ah Chuan Fried Oyster Omelette as soon as I finished my wanton mee. Fried oyster omelette is referred to as orh chien (蠔煎 in Hokkien) or orh luak (蠔烙 in Teochew). They are similar but different oyster dishes - Ah Chuan's is the Hokkien orh chien.

Of course, every Singapore foodie knows that Ah Chuan's orh chien is one of the most famous on the island. Ah Chuan and wife are in semi-retirement mode after 50 years in the business. I was just lucky that the queue was relatively short today.



I ordered the smallest serving which costs S$4. The larger servings at S$5 and S$8 have the option of prawns added. I decided to stick to basics for this round.



On the plate was a heap of fried egg and chunks of potato starch, some of which were crisped and browned outside - well seared with generous amounts of vegetable oil.

The oysters, golden yellow eggs and potato chunks were crowned with stalks of spring onion and glorious green cilantro (Chinese parsley).



The eggs themselves don't have much flavour (as most farmed eggs are nowadays). They take on the savoury flavour of the fish sauce and a hint of spiciness from chili paste.

The potato starch have a nice spongy gummy feel which I like. The caramelised pieces have a slight crisp and a nice savoury toasty flavour to it too.



Buried in the greasy heap, there were three (3) big oysters the size of a fat man's thumb (mine lah... .).



The oysters were frozen ones from Korea. (How do I know? While in the queue, I saw the delivery man arrived with the cartons 😃)

The little bulging sacs of creamy milky tissue were soft - the thin membrane bursts with a gentle bite spilling the oozy creamy milkiness. The oysters have the characteristic metallic briny taste of..... alamak.... oysters lah.



👉 If you like your orh chien quite dry with big chunks of fried egg, seared potato starch and big creamy oysters, then Ah Chuan has the fried oyster omelette for you. Do note that this dish is quite greasy (with vegetable oil).

The fried eggs, fried potato starch and oysters were piled together on the plate but remained separate - their flavours are not melded together as the dish was quite dry and did not have juices to hold all three elements together. The taste of oyster does not permeate the dish.

The more moist, more eggy versions which I like more are at Ah Lim's at Berseh food centre and Mr. Foong's stall in Johor Bahru.



Restaurant name: Ah Chuan Fried Oyster Omelette 阿泉蠔煎
Address:  Blk 22 Toa Payoh Lor 7 #01-25 Singapore (Kim Keat Palm) 
GPS: 1.334793, 103.857708 
Hours: 12:00 noon to 3:00pm (Closed on Tuesday)

Non Halal

Date: 23 Sep 2017

Return to Johor Kaki homepage.