Maxwell Fuzhou Oyster Cake: You can’t find this dish anymore!

You might raise your eyebrow at the price ($2 each; $1 extra for more oysters) but one bite of the Fuzhou fried oyster cake from this nearly five-decade-old stall located at Maxwell Food Centre and you’ll understand why they are worth every penny. This, despite criticisms from fans who moan that the sizes of the “cakes” have been getting smaller and smaller.

Maxwell Fuzhou Oyster Cake was started in 1962 by Madam Pang Siew Ting, who, in order to support her five children, decided to do what she was good at — oyster cake, a common snack in Fuzhou, China. Oyster cakes are practically impossible to find in Singapore now.

As oysters were expensive and hard to find in Singapore back then, she improvised using clams or mussels. Over the years, the recipe has been refined to include prawns, minced meat, and oysters.

Chewy and crispy on the outside and fried only in small batches to maintain freshness, it is a wonderful marriage of moist minced meat, chopped oysters, crunchy peanuts and coriander, all covered in a rice-based fried batter. It is an addictive dish that goes well with the chilli sauce on the side. The chilli is fresh-tasting, light on the sugar but still very potent. It’ll be hard for you to stop at just one.

This Fuzhou snack is close to extinction in Singapore. Aside from Maxwell Fuzhou Oyster Cake, there is another stall in Berseh Food Centre — Fu Zhou Poh Hwa Oyster Cake — which still sells the dish.