THE idiom “to die for want of lobster sauce” is based on the tale of a grand feast held in honor of French King Louis XIV. It’s said the lobsters to make a turbot sauce didn’t arrive on time, and the aggrieved chef committed suicide with his sword rather than face disgrace.

In contemporary usage, the phrase means to suffer minor disappointment, But no one need suffer any disappointment in China when it comes to fine culinary sauces derived from fish and crustaceans.

While many common Chinese sauces are plant-based, such as fermented soybeans, soybean paste and hot chillies, protein-based sauces made from shrimp, scallops, oysters and even small fish are culinary additions that add intense, umami flavors to dishes.

Seafood seasonings, naturally enough, originate along coastline and rivers, where the primer ingredients are abundant, cheap and fresh.

Oyster sauce

Oyster sauce is among the most widely used Chinese cooking around the world.

Its origin is credited to Lee Kam Sheung, who made his living by selling cooked oysters in the Guangdong Province city of Nanshui. One day, while cooking his oysters, he lost track of time. What resulted was a thick, brownish sauce with an aromatic smell and taste.

Lee is the founder of the Hong Kong company Lee Kum Kee, which specializes in making oyster and other Chinese and Asian sauces.

Traditional oyster sauce is made by simmering oysters in water until everything melts into a caramelized thick sauce. However, many oyster sauces on the market today are made with oyster essence or extract rather than large numbers of the shellfish. Sugar, salt and cornstarch water are added.

Oyster sauce is widely used in hot and cold dishes, from stews and soups to stir-fries and noodles. As the popularity of Chinese food spread abroad, the sauce traveled, too. It is now common on supermarket shelves the world over.

Oyster sauce also makes great marinades for meats, adding umami flavor and improving textures.

An easy dish to highlight the versatility of oyster sauce is oyster sauce lettuce. To make the dish, fresh lettuce leaves are simmered for around 30 seconds in water, then drained and set aside. In a separate pan, garlic, oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar are stirred together. A mixture of cornstarch and water is then poured into the pan to thicken the sauce, which is finally poured on top of the lettuce.

Oyster tofu is also a quick dish, with soft tofu stewed with oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar.

One tip: Don’t cook oyster sauce over high heat for a long time or you will lose the flavor.

XO sauce

XO sauce is a spicy seafood sauce that originated from the Cantonese cuisine of Hong Kong. The name XO refers to the “extra old” designation given to high-quality French cognacs. Indeed, it is a high-quality sauce.

XO is made from roughly chopped dried fish, scallops, shrimp and Jinhua cured ham. It is cooked with chili peppers, onions, garlic and other traditional Chinese spices.

This sauce complements stir-fries, such as those using shrimp or abalone mushroom, and can be added in noodles, fried rice or stir-fried rice cakes. It’s not hard to make XO sauce at home. You need to soak the dried scallops and shrimp in water, and steam the Jinhua ham until it is soft. Then everything is chopped together. Add oil to a pan and fry the onions, garlic and chili peppers, then fry the seafood and ham lightly. Add half a bowl of oil and pour in all the fried ingredients, season with soy sauce, sugar and ground chili pepper, and simmer until thick.

The homemade XO sauce can be stored in clean glass jars for one to two months in the fridge.

Dried scallop sauce is similar to XO sauce, but it uses more scallops and only a little ham and fish.

Satay sauce

Satay is a shrimp-based sauce widely used in Fujian and Guangdong provinces. It originated in Indonesia, where it is mainly used as a dipping sauce for grilled lamb, chicken or pork. When it was introduced to the Chaozhou and Shantou (Chaoshan) areas of China, the recipe was altered to put more accent on spiciness.

Chaoshan satay sauce is made from peanuts, white sesame seed, fish, shrimp, garlic, mustard, chili pepper, turmeric, clove, aged mandarin peel and other herbs and spices. The ingredients are ground and then cooked in oil and salt.

Satay can be a dipping sauce for meats and hotpots, or it can be added to enrich stews and steamed pork short ribs. Satay beef is an all-time classic stir-fry that can be made easily in home kitchens, and the sauce also works very well in noodle soups.

Fish sauce

Fish sauce is widely used in Cantonese and Southeast Asian cuisines. The amber colored sauce is made from small fish, which are marinated, fermented and cooked to extract a very umami-flavored liquid that’s quite salty.

There are several different fermentation methods. The natural process produces the most delicious variety of the sauce, but takes several months or even a year or longer to complete.

Other methods include low salt fermentation, fish viscera fermentation, distiller’s yeast fermentation and mixed fermentation that combines these three methods. Thailand and Vietnam are the two main exporters of fish sauces. China’s coastal provinces Guangdong and Fujian also produce this condiment.

Fish sauce can be added to cold noodle dishes and is a must-have condiment when making Thai dishes like tom yam kung.

Shrimp paste
and shrimp soy sauce

Shrimp paste and shrimp soy sauce are made from small shellfish harvested from the sea or rivers. The condiments are very salty.

Shrimp paste is made by adding salt to small shrimp and then grinding it into a paste after fermentation. The shrimp paste is usually sold in jars or as dried squares.

Shrimp paste can be used in dipping sauces for hotpots. It also works well with stews using tofu and even scrambled eggs. Shrimp soy sauce, on the other hand, is not from Cantonese cuisine, but rather comes from the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province. The traditional sauce is made from fresh river shrimp, sugar and sorghum liquor.

To make shrimp soy sauce at home, first bring water to a boil until the bubbles disappear, then add cleaned fresh shrimp, sugar and liquor. Turn off the heat when the shrimp float to the top. The mixture is then allowed to cool to room temperature before storage in glass bottles.

Shrimp soy sauce is a much lighter in taste than other fish- and shrimp-based sauces. It’s usually used in the same way as light soy sauce, adding flavor to soups, fried noodles and stir-fries.

When making shrimp and pork wonton fillings, substitute shrimp soy sauce for regular soy sauce to add extra flavor.