Orh Ah Mee Sua (台湾蚵仔面线) Taiwanese Oyster Vermicelli with Homemade
- erinna Chng
- Feb 20
- 2 min read
Taiwanese Orh Ah Mee Sua (蚵仔面线), a popular Street food in Taiwan – is a bowl of wheat vermicelli cooked rich bonito-flavored thickened soup. Top with juicy, plump oysters, pork intestine and homemade chili sauce.
One of my favourite Taiwanese dish. As long as the street vendors in Taiwan sells it, I will order. My favourite is still 阿宗面线 at 西门丁。I will definitely order this in any Taiwanese Restaurant to gauge the authenticity of their food. This is not a difficult dish to make but seems like not every restaurant can make it the right way in Singapore.
After the latest bowl I had failed me badly, I decide to just make it on my own to satisfy my craving before making a trip to Taiwan.
The Taiwanese took an extra step in handling the oysters. They coated these tiny precious with sweet potato flour and blanch them in boiling water for a couple of seconds.
Reason being, the oysters will remain plump and juicy after cook and you do not need to fish around the bowl of mee sua for the tiny ones.
The remaining steps are very simple. Just stir fry the garlic until fragrant, add water, seasonings and other ingredients (except oysters). Boil until noodle soften and thicken the noodle soup with cornstarch mixture. When done, top with oysters, cilantro and homemade chili (optional). Thicken the broth buy adding the cornstarch mixture gradually – until your desired consistency. Viola!
**Update: I went to Ah Zhong Mian Xian in Taipei again recently and realised the addition of basil leaves into the broth. I have added and it really elevated the taste of the whole dish.
*this recipe did not use bonito flakes. Instead, I replaced it with dashi power (bonito flavored powder) and save on the straining part if using bonito flakes.
Here’s a video recipe on how to make Orh Ah Mee Sua (台湾蚵仔面线)