In fact, oyster sauce, like soy sauce, is not oil, but a seasoning. Oyster sauce was really made of oysters at first. Oyster, also known as oyster, is a kind of marine mollusk with delicious meat and rich nutrition, which is distributed all over the southern coastal areas of China. Speaking of the invention of oyster sauce, it is still an unintentional story. The protagonist of the story is Li Jinshang, the founder of Lee Kum Kee. Li Jinshang was born in Zhongli Village, seven towns in Xinhui, Guangdong, and then settled in Nanshui, Zhuhai. Nanshui is a small island in the Pearl River Estuary, which is rich in oysters. Li Jinshang opened a small teahouse, where he cooked oysters and sold them. On this day, Li Jinshang made a fire to cook oysters as before, but forgot to turn off the fire.

After a long time, there was a strong smell in the kitchen, and he remembered it. As a result, as soon as he opened the lid, he saw a thick layer of juice sinking to the bottom of the pot, which was brown and fragrant. He tasted a little and thought it was delicious. So he thinks this thing is very good and everyone should like it. This is a business opportunity. So Li Jinshang developed oyster sauce and created Lee Kum Kee. Oyster sauce was first popular in Guangdong, because there are more seafood along the coast of Guangdong. At that time, oyster sauce was a soup made of oysters, which was filtered and concentrated. At first, this kind of seasoning is used for refreshing, and usually some other seasonings are added for modulation. It is a nutritious and delicious condiment.

Oyster sauce has many processes. The most important step is to boil fresh oysters with water to the desired viscosity. This step is also the most time-consuming procedure. To make high-quality oyster sauce, it is necessary to have the delicious taste of oysters. There are many kinds of famous dishes seasoned with oyster sauce, such as beef in oyster sauce, duck feet in oyster sauce, oyster sauce chicken wings, mushrooms in oyster sauce, pigeon in oyster sauce, tofu in oyster sauce, braised tripe in oyster sauce and sliced abalone in oyster sauce. Another example is Tan Jiacai's "abalone breast in oyster sauce" and Guangxi's famous dish "duck with pomelo skin in oyster sauce", each with its own characteristics. Oyster sauce is suitable for cooking techniques such as frying, stewing and burning. In recent years, with the mutual penetration of people's eating habits and the improvement of living standards in China, not only people in Guangzhou like to eat oyster sauce, but also people in other places gradually like to eat it.

However, oyster sauce on the market now is very cheap and oysters are so expensive. If they are all cooked with oysters, the cost can't be that low. In fact, all kinds of oyster sauce with favorable prices that we see in our daily life are basically prepared with various seasonings, and it may be better to add some oyster sauce, but most of them are vegetarian oyster sauce made of mushrooms (a kind of mushrooms). Except that it doesn't fit the name, many oyster sauces do not contain oysters. Oyster sauce is still very useful as seasoning.