Xinwen Oyster Omelette Introduction
"Xingwen Oysters Fritter" started as a stall at Zhou Shui He during the late Japanese colonial period and has passed down to the third generation, with over 80 years of history, it has become a place of nostalgia for the people of Xingwen. Whenever relatives return from abroad, they must come to eat; not having eaten Xingwen Oysters Fritter is akin to not having returned to Xingwen at all. Cai Chong-ji (born in 1956) is the grandson of Zhou Shui He, who worked as a salt laborer in the Budai salt field. During the rainy season or winter when salt production was halted, to support his family, he set up a stall frying oysters fritters at the entrance of the Jiaying Temple. The oysters fritters were previously known as "bitter fritters" because they had a higher proportion of chives and were fried dark, giving them a slightly bitter taste, hence the name. The people of Xingwen prefer meat fritters with pork filling over those with oyster filling, so although the stall is named "Xingwen Oysters Fritter," it primarily serves meat fritters. During the Japanese occupation, there was no pork, so dolphin meat was used when available, and black mullet meat was used when it was in season, switching according to availability. Cai Chong-ji's father, Cai Huan-nan (born in 1923), was also a salt worker and, after losing his job due to consolidation policies, took over the oyster fritter stall at the Jiaying Temple's entrance. In the 1980s, after Xiao Yu-lan married into the family, she also took over her father-in-law's oyster fritter stall, becoming the third-generation inheritor of "Xingwen Oysters Fritter." The batter for "Xingwen Oysters Fritter" consists of rice milk and yellow soybean flour; the filling includes cabbage, chives, and...
