Taishan Oysters

Taishan Oysters

　　Oysters are a famous seafood product with a long history in our city. Our coastline is long, and there are vast tidal flats suitable for oyster growth. But oysters have unique growing conditions—they thrive and fatten best in areas where seawater meets freshwater. Locations such as Nafu Lianhe and Shenjing Kanghua in our city, situated at the tail end of Beihai Bay, have relatively fresh water, which is conducive to breeding oyster spat; the central part of Beihai Bay, including areas like Beitou Shatouyong and Wen Village’s Qiaole and Wuxiang, as well as Chixi Caochong near Yamenkou, provide ideal conditions for the growth of juvenile oysters, making them excellent natural oyster grounds. According to their nature and characteristics, oysters can be divided into two types: one is called yellow oyster, also known as wild oyster; the other is white oyster, which is artificially cultivated. There is not much difference in the meat quality between these two types of oysters, except that one has a yellowish shell and the other has a whiter shell; their fattening periods are also different. Yellow oysters are plumpest during the fifth lunar month. During this time, residents of Chixi and Guanghai collect large, plump, and very tasty yellow oysters from the rocky shorelines. White oysters only enter their fattening period after the Winter Solstice. Artificially cultivated oysters are generally harvested after the Winter Solstice. But regardless of whether they are yellow or white oysters, they share a common trait: when oysters are too fat, they develop mucus (i.e., the secretion inside the oyster), which actually makes them taste worse and gives them a slightly sour flavor. White oysters are usually harvested after four or five years of cultivation. During harvest, oyster pickers use small iron awls to knock the oysters off the rocks they are attached to, then use the awls to pry open the shells and extract the oyster meat—that is the fresh oyster. Fresh oysters, once cooked and dried, become oyster 豉. The liquid from cooking the oysters, when boiled down and concentrated, becomes oyster sauce.