🍽️ Clam Cake

Minced clam pancake, Yellow Sea umami.

Clam cake is a homely umami snack of Nantong, Jiangsu, built on the clams of the Yellow Sea. The coast around Nantong yields plump, sweet soft-shell clams. Fresh clam meat is chopped, mixed with minced chives or scallions, bound with egg and flour into a batter, then pan-fried until golden on both sides. Crisp outside and tender within, each bite bursts with clam juice; egg aroma and seafood sweetness blend into a lightly salty, savory cake. It is a common breakfast and porridge-side at Nantong tables and also appears at local banquets. A plate of golden clam cake distills the Yellow Sea coastal principle of freshness first, modest in price, outstanding in flavor.