Dried Oyster and Black Moss, or ho see fat choy in Cantonese (unfortunately, there’s really no better way to type it out phonetically…we tried), is a traditional dish that is eaten almost exclusively during Chinese New Year. It’s a popular holiday favorite in Hong Kong and Southern China.
So why is this dish eaten for the Chinese New Year, a time where everyone wants to start off on a high note of prosperity, health and “auspicious” everything and anything? Well, it’s all about the phonetics of the Chinese––specifically Cantonese––words, and a bit of superstition.
The dried oyster is called “ho see,” which sounds like the word for good events or deeds. “Fat choy” (the black moss) sounds like the word for prosperity or “to get rich.” Lettuce, used as a base for this dish, is pronounced “seung choy,” which sounds like “to grow wealth.”
Just remember that this applies to Cantonese pronunciation. As a result, this dish isn’t all that common outside of Cantonese kitchens. This year (the year of the monkey, in case you were wondering) we put together a list of dishes for New Year celebrations and asked our readers to request any recipes that we haven’t gotten to yet. This Dried Oyster and Black Moss (Ho See Fat Choy) recipe is our answer to one of those requests!
For our version, I decided to add dried mushrooms, since that’s how my mother prepared this dried oyster and black moss dish. The mushrooms add body and a nice flavor as well.
Dried oysters can be found in well-stocked Chinese and Asian grocery stores. They are expensive and come in different grades, depending upon their size, origin, and whether they are fresh/raw dried or cooked before drying.
Fat choy is a dried black moss that is found in the Gobi desert, not seaweed, as many recipes and articles on the internet suggest. The literal translation of fat choy is “hair vegetable,” and when we were kids, we used to say to our parents at the Chinese New Year’s table, “Yes please, I would like some hair!”
Okay, okay. So this dish isn’t a mainstream favorite. It may not be the most appetizing dish to everyone, but if you grew up having it for Chinese New Year like I did, I’m sure you’ll appreciate this recipe written down and photographed for posterity!
Recipe Instructions
Soak the dried oysters in cold water for 15 minutes, and rinse them well to ensure any and all sand has been rinsed off. Set aside.
Soak the black moss in cold water for 15 minutes. Swish it around a bit to loosen any dirt or particles. Remove by hand and discard the water. Repeat the process once more before transferring the moss to a colander to drain.
Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for at least 90 minutes. You may need to soak them longer if the mushrooms are large and meaty. Soaking overnight is recommended. Once the mushrooms are rehydrated, give them a final rinse and squeeze them gently to remove excess water. Cut off the stems and discard them.
If using the chicken fat, render it in a pot over medium heat until the fat is a little crispy. A clay pot or earthen pot is nice for stewing and presentation! If not using the chicken fat, heat the pot over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of canola oil, the chicken base, smashed ginger slices and scallion whites, and brown them until caramelized (about 1 minute).
Add the mushrooms, and stir fry for another minute.
Add the oysters and continue stir-frying for another minute. Add the Shaoxing wine and, after a quick stir, add the chicken stock, sugar, soy sauce, and oyster sauce.
Stir everything together. Next, add the fat choy and gently stir it in without breaking it up, so it’s submerged in the liquid. Cover, reduce the heat to medium low, and let simmer for 20 minutes.
Line a large deep serving plate with hand-torn romaine or iceberg lettuce or you can carefully work in fresh stir-fried lettuce to the bottom of your clay or earthen cooking pot and serve it right in the vessel. Uncover your simmering pot and increase the heat to reduce the sauce until most of the standing liquid is no longer visible. Stir in the green portion of the scallions, and spoon the mixture over the top of the lettuce. Try to place the dried oysters and mushrooms on the top where they are visible, and serve hot!
Serve this dried oyster and black moss dish for your Lunar New year feast this year!
Dried Oyster and Black Moss (Ho See Fat Choy)
Ingredients
- 12 dried oysters
- 1 ounce dried moss (fat choy)
- 12 dried shiitake mushrooms (not all families add this, so they're completely optional!)
- 1 teaspoon organic chicken base (or 2 ounces of chicken fat)
- 1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
- 5 slices ginger (¼-inch thick and smashed with a cleaver)
- 2 scallions (white portions smashed with a cleaver and green portions cut into 2-inch pieces)
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 small head of baby romaine lettuce or iceberg lettuce
Instructions
- Soak the dried oysters in cold water for 15 minutes, and rinse them well to ensure any and all sand has been rinsed off. Set aside. Soak the black moss in cold water for 15 minutes. Swish it around a bit to loosen any dirt or particles. Remove by hand and discard the water. Repeat the process once more before transferring the moss to a colander to drain.
- Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for at least 90 minutes. You may need to soak them longer if the mushrooms are large and meaty. Soaking overnight is recommended. Once the mushrooms are rehydrated, give them a final rinse and squeeze them gently to remove excess water. Cut off the stems and discard them.
- If using the chicken fat, render it in a pot over medium heat until the fat is a little crispy. If not using the chicken fat, heat the pot over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of canola oil, the chicken base, smashed ginger slices and scallion whites, and brown them until caramelized (about 1 minute). Add the mushrooms, and stir fry for another minute.
- Add the oysters and continue stir-frying for another minute. Add the Shaoxing wine and, after a quick stir, add the chicken stock, sugar, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Stir everything together. Next, add the fat choy and gently stir it in without breaking it up, so it's submerged in the liquid. Cover, reduce the heat to medium low, and let simmer for 20 minutes.
- Line a large deep serving plate with hand-torn romaine or iceberg lettuce. Uncover your simmering pot and increase the heat to reduce the sauce until most of the standing liquid is no longer visible. Stir in the green portion of the scallions, and spoon the mixture over the top of the lettuce. Try to place the oysters and mushrooms on the top where they are visible, and serve hot!
nutrition facts
Guys I have to say, great site and great recipes. Used both this and the Buddha’s delight as part of our CNY meal tonight. Excellent recipe!!!! This particular dish literally tastes like what I used to have for CNY in HK. Absolutely bravo.
Looking forward to trying more of the recipes on this site.
Have a great CNY gang. Food love from the UK!!!
Thank you so much for your high praise, Tony! Happy New Year!
Haven’t had this dish since my grandfather passed away. I have fond memories of New Year’s Eve (年卅晚) dinner at the round table at their tiny apartment. Hope to make this someday for my own children. Thanks for sharing.
(Though, he never used lettuce…)
Hi Cathy, the lettuce is mostly for decoration as this dish is hard to photograph. But I have to say, some light sauteed lettuce makes a great “bedding” for this dish.
Hi, I remember this dish fondly! Thank you for sharing.
I have kids that are allergic to shell fish /mollusks and can’t eat oysters.
Can you recommend a substitute for the oysters?
thanks!
Hi Kallah,
You can leave out the oysters out of this dish and use a vegetarian oyster sauce that is made from mushrooms. You can take a look at it HERE on our Chinese Sauces Ingredients page. Happy Cooking!
I have used the vegetarian oyster sauce ….I just never thought of using only mushrooms – duh.
thanks!
Holiday traditions are all about fond memories, and the memory of a special dish warms my heart. So even if I don’t cook this dish because the ingredients are endangered, your recipe helps me recall its distinct smells and tastes, and the people sharing that dish — which is more than sufficient for me. Thank you! Here’s wishing your family a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year!
Hi Linda,
Agreed and thanks so much for sharing your views :) Happy and healthy New Year to all!
Wow, thank you, Bill, thank you! I’ve thought of, dreamt of, reminisced, pondered this dish for decades. I first saw it as a child and refused to eat it, after she had spent hours cooking, prompting my poor mother to never make it again. My father tried it again during my teenager years and I couldn’t get enough. Sadly, my father usually makes a dish and if it’s successful, will move onto another dish and won’t repeat the old ones again. It sounds like a great way to sample new things but by this time, I was living a thousand miles away and didn’t have the benefit of the new offerings. I craved this every year during New Year’s time but have not found a restaurant yet in Orlando that serves this. I always assumed it was near impossible in difficulty, so never attempted it myself. Reading this recipe tonight, it seems quite within my capabilities. That is the beauty of your blog. I keep finding recipes that I always assumed was crazy hard, demystified.
This new year, an oyster and dried moss dish will appear on our table, thanks to you guys! (By the way, my dad made it with shiitake mushrooms too!) Happy New Year and cheers!
Hi CC, Thanks for sharing your experience and Happy Lunar New year to you and your family. I am sure your cooking will make your family very happy!
Great dish that looks rather daunting to the european eye, yet definitely takes me back to my trips to HK and the smells and sounds of the long streets lined with shops that sell dried fish, oysters and mussels.
Thanks so much for sharing this. I hope I gain the courage (and ingredients) to try this out one day. I remember on my first trip to HK, the streets being as narrow as they are, I could look into the house opposite the hotel and watch a woman preparing dishes in a tall clay pot in her kitchen. I really *really* need to get one myself.
It’s funny and a little sad that a lot of my friends in HK, arguably the younger,working generation, said they don’t cook because food is so ubiquitous and cheap, they just go out for meals. So I was never able to pinch some recipes from them.
SO GLAD I found this page. ;))
Welcome Bianca and thanks for sharing your experiences! :)
I love your site! I have no Chinese background whatsoever, but have been trying to perfect my Asian cooking technique, since it’s my favorite type of food. This dish sounds very interesting. Was just reading on Wikipedia that a Hong Kong study found that fat choy containsaatoxic amino acid that could affect the normal functions of nerve cells. How bizarre!
Hi Doug, that is a bizarre fact that I never heard of! Hopefully it’s not that serious or we probably would have heard more about it. There are lots of claims about foods that are unhealthy and some about foods that are ok as long as we eat in moderation and keep our diets diversified. That said, maybe it’s another reason to only have this dish once a year!
As a Cantonese, this is one of my favorite dishes. Sometimes people will also put some roast pork in this dish to add more flavor.
However, I also heard that the dry moss is going extinct due to over harvesting. Many of the dry moss being sold now is artificial — and created in China. So be very careful when picking up the dry moss to make sure it is the real thing. But if dry moss is truly an endangered species, then I think we should stop eating this dish, as much as I enjoy it — like sharks fin soup, sometimes it is better to preserve nature no matter how good it tastes.
Thanks for sharing your views. I have heard the same about the dried black moss and it is hard to find these days. I agree that we should curb its use if this is truly the case for the black moss. The mushrooms and Oysters are great and maybe we can substitute thin mung bean noodles in their place and still have this symbolic dish on the table for the lunar New year. Cheers!
Wow, I absolutely forgot about this dish. The last time I had this dish was 32 years ago when my grandmother cooked it but after she passed no one know how to cook this dish therefore my kid had no idea what it taste like.
Thank you for the recipe I will give it a try now that I know what kind of seasoning are included.
Love all your traditional dishes that I love yet don’t have the recipes.
Hi Sylvia, you’re Grandma would be proud of you! :)
I just want to say that i absolutely love your site. Almost every dish you post is a blast from my past that i thought i would never be able to get recipes for. These are all authentic dishes i grew up with and you made it possible for me to be able to pass it on to my kids. Thank you so much and keep up the great work!!
Thanks for your kind comment and we love the appreciation for these classic recipes. Hope you enjoy this one!