Lobster sauce

Shrimp in lobster sauce

Lobster sauce is a type of sauce used in American-Chinese and Canadian-Chinese cuisine. It is also sometimes found in Polynesian-influenced Chinese food. It is a type of "white sauce" within Chinese cooking, meaning that it is of a mild flavor, and based on meat stock, as opposed to soy sauce. Lobster sauce is most commonly used as a sauce for the dish Shrimp with Lobster Sauce (Chinese: 蝦龍糊).

The sauce itself does not contain any lobster, and may vary in preparation method from place to place or restaurant to restaurant. However, it will typically contain chicken broth, garlic, ginger, fermented black beans, and eggs, and is thickened with cornstarch. Some recipes incorporate ground pork and soy sauce. The color varies from being pale white, to a yellow, mainly depending on how the eggs are incorporated into the sauce; if the eggs are added quickly, the sauce acquires a yellow hue. Lobster sauce in most of New England, where it is a thicker, brown sauce, is the exception.

It may have been named "lobster sauce" due to the fact that it derives from a similar family of sauces used in Cantonese cuisine that were traditionally poured over stir-fried lobster. Neither the recipe nor the sauce exist in China or in Chinese communities in Asia, and is considered to be an example of "Overseas Chinese food".