Many years ago I ordered Shrimp With Lobster Sauce in a Chinese restaurant far, far away. I really don’t even remember where I had it. It was a delightful thing, with a certain taste to it that I found quite delicious. A very distinctive taste, one that I don’t really recall since it’s been so long, but I know that I loved it and haven’t tasted it since.
For lo these many years, every Chinese restaurant I frequent, I order the dish. However, I’ve yet to capture that one taste of long ago. All the lobster sauce since has been your basic flavorless bland white sauce with egg in it. No taste at all.
I’m starting to think the first Shrimp With Lobster Sauce was a fluke. A tasty one, but a fluke never to be duplicated. Maybe the dish is supposed to be bland and flavorless?
Does anybody know what it’s really supposed to taste like? Do I continue the quest or give it up and settle for more mundane fare like Mongolian Beef or Orange Chicken? Why am I always overcome with the urge to mock the Chinese language when I dine at their establishments?
In my experience, shrimp w/lobster sauce is good if you order it on the east coast, but boring & icky if you order it on the west coast–could that be a factor in your recollection of the dish?
You’re in Tucson? If you ever go near Gilbert, stop by Paul Lee’s Chinese Kitchen.
Here’s some driving Directions
I think you will like their Shrimp in Lobster sauce. And since you’re on a “Quest”, a 100 mile drive might be worth it to you. Good luck!
Let me tell you, really good Chinese food is never bland and flavorless. Properly made shrimp with lobster sauce uses a delicious sauce that includes fermented black beans and ground or sliced pork. I’ve had this dish before in mediocre Chinese restaurants that for whatever reason decided to leave out these two really important ingredients (so it’s basically just white wine sauce with some egg), and this often ruins the dish for me. Maybe the restaurants you’ve been frequenting don’t include these two key components.
Took a Chinese cooking class some years ago in Princeton, New Jersey. Shrimp with Lobster Sauce was one of our ‘learning dishes.’
Lobster sauce isn’t sauce made from lobsters, but is the sauce traditionally used to accompany lobster dishes.
It involves ground pork and ground black beans, with beaten eggs added at the end of the cooking process. It is one of the most exquisite dishes I’ve ever encountered (please consider my Anglo sensibilities). I continue to order it at least once a year in various Chinese restaurants at home, but never get the high quality I’ve found in Southeast Asia or from my class.
I’ll muck around to find the recipe.
Could it be the style of restaurant you go to. When I was younger, I went to an old-style Cantonese restaurant which had amazing Shrimp with Lobster Sauce. Unfortunately, it closed, and most more recent Chinese restaurants are Hunan or Sezchuan style, which just don’t make it the same way.
I’ve had good S w/ LS at other Cantonese restaurants, but never at a a Hunan or Sezchuan one.