Cycle 13 – Item 212
5 (Fri) August 2022
Shrimp in Lobster Sauce
3.0
at PF Chang’s
(Lotte World Mall)
-Jamsil, Songpa, Seoul, Republic of Korea-
solo
Shrimp in Lobster Sauce is an American-Chinese dish. Lobster sauce is a clearish gravy, typically made of chicken stock + a touch of soy sauce + sesame oil + garlic + scallions, sometimes fresh ginger and/or fermented black beans and/or shaoxing wine, plus scrambled eggs and/or peas. It doesn’t contain any lobster (like how oyster sauce contains oyster extract) but rather was originally invented as a sauce for lobster; however, because lobster was too expensive for most customers, shrimp was substituted, eventually becoming a dish in its own right. The general formula is common in traditional Cantonese cuisine, even if not labelled as such (see for example 8.289 Egg Casserole with Seafood).
The PF Chang rendition was pretty good. A bit dark in color and more savory in flavor due to addition of crushed fermented black beans. Whereas my favorite kind of Chinese dish involves seafood in thick white eggy sauce (see for example 10.078 Shrimp and Scramble Egg Fried Rice), the eggs here weren’t thoroughly infused into the sauce. But overall, the dish was better than anything at Korean-Chinese restaurants throughout Korea.
(See also FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)