It must have been in the late eighties when I—sixteen years young and ready to conquer the world—was taken on my first romantic dinner, ever. We went to a lovely Chinese restaurant.

Up to this day I’m still not sure if it was the being young and in love that made this so memorable, or that the food was really all that great. Either way, I not only fell in love with my date but also with the dish that was served that night: foe yong hai. At least that’s the Dutch name for it.

It’s a real easy to make Chinese type of omelet, richly filled with vegetables and poultry or seafood, and drizzled with a sweet and sour sauce.

There are a gazillion ways to cook this. This is my favorite way.

 
Ingredients:

 
Omelet:

1/2 chicken breast
1 medium leek
1 medium onion
1 medium carrot
8 large eggs
1/2 can bamboo shoots
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
pinch of white pepper
 

Sauce:

1 tbsp chopped onion
1 tsp peanut/canola/sunflower oil
1/2 tsp ground ginger
4 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 tbsp cornstarch (mixed with 3 tbsp water)
1 or 2 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar

Directions:

The stuff. If you have a few mushrooms hanging around your fridge doing nothing useful, add them! It’s the right thing.

Peel the carrot and thinly slice it.

Cut the onion in quarter rings, cut the leek in thick slices and drain the bamboo shoots.

 
Bamboo shoots are so tasty, but have such a foul barn-like smell. And that’s putting it mildly.
 

Thinly slice the chicken.

 
There are various ways to prepare this dish, and a lot of people will add the raw chicken to the eggs. I don’t. I’m way too paranoid for that, so I blanch the chicken and veggies first.
 

Bring a layer of water to a boil.

Drop the chopped ingredients in there and boil for 2 minutes.

That’s it. Now you rinse everything with cold water and drain it.

 
Let’s move on to the sauce. I like to get that out-of-the-way first.
 

Mince about a tbsp onion, heat a tsp neutral flavored oil and sauté the onion for a minute or two before adding the ketchup.

Pour in the water.

Season the sauce with ground ginger, sugar, lemon juice or vinegar and sweet chili sauce.

Let it simmer for 5 minutes.

Finish the sauce with the cornstarch and salt to taste. It should be a lovely thick, red sauce now.

Them be eggs. I kinda like this shot, not sure why.

Add the salt, sugar and white pepper and beat the heck out of them.

Really put some work into it before adding the vegetables and chicken.

Stir in the bamboo shoots.

Heat 1 or 2 tbsp neutral flavored oil in a non-stick skillet and pour the egg mix in there.

Gently move things around a bit until the eggs start to set.

That’s your cue to leave it be for roughly 5 minutes (low heat). I like to put a lid on there, but you don’t have to.

 
It’s near impossible for me to flip an omelet that heavy and keep it in one piece.
 

So I slice it in half and flip the two halves. Works much easier. Give the other side 4 to 5 minutes as well.

 
Transfer the omelet to a serving plate, spoon the sauce all over and let people help themselves.
 

The first flush of love faded, the Foe Yong Hai stayed. Not a bad deal, I say.

 
Do yourself a big favor and serve it with my Chinese Fried Rice. (<--- bad photography but good recipe). It's a match made in heaven!