In December 2024, the Michelin Guide shone a spotlight on Fujian province in southeast China for the first time, announcing its Bib Gourmand and restaurant selections for the cities of Xiamen, Fuzhou and Quanzhou.
The guide covers 69 establishments, including five awarded a Michelin star, 47 Bib Gourmand restaurants that serve good-value gourmet meals, and 17 “Michelin Selected” locations – places that demonstrate good-quality cooking but are not yet at a level to merit a Bib Gourmand or Michelin star.
Many of them serve one of Fujian’s most famous specialities: pan-fried crispy oysters or hai li jian, said to date back to 1661.
“It was invented by Zheng Chenggong, a Ming dynasty general and native of Quanzhou, while he was sent to reclaim Taiwan from the Dutch,” says Du Guojin, head chef at one of the restaurants awarded a Michelin star, Hokklo at the Waldorf Astoria Xiamen hotel, which serves contemporary Chinese cuisine.
“After being defeated by Zheng, the Dutch discarded all their food supplies into the sea. Faced with food shortages, Zheng combined the starch of sweet potatoes planted by the Westerners with the abundant oysters from the nearby straits, mixing them with eggs to fry.”
The dish was later taken back to Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, the places from which Zheng’s troops came, and variations on it developed.
