Chinese-American Shrimp in Lobster Sauce from Golden Star Chinese Restaurant in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget
One of my Taiwanese work colleagues in Chicago, Illinois gave me the Chinese name of Pan Ro-She, meaning silk thread because of my hair.
My colleague was somewhat appalled that I ate Chinese, Taiwanese, and Chinese-American food with equal gusto and remained thin. She said Chinese-American food was not good, because I did not gain weight eating it.
“What kind of rice are you eating at these Chinese-American restaurants,” she wanted to know.
(The Taiwanese like pork-fried rice; one of the reasons they immigrated to pork belly trading Chicago.)
“I want to be thin,” I said in the 1980s Calvin Klein era.
“I like Chinese-American food, because of all the vegetables, the right size of protein, and tons of rice,” I said in defense of dishes like shrimp with lobster sauce that I recently ordered from Golden Star Restaurant in Salinas, California.
My Taiwanese colleague objected to shrimp with lobster sauce, in particular, because “there’s no lobster in the sauce. It’s all egg.”
Some cooks like Maggie Zhu from omnivorescookbook.com use pork as a flavoring agent in their lobster sauce. At Golden Star they seem to use wild onions as the flavoring agent and no cornstarch slurry sauce as a sauce thickener.
However, with those modifications, Golden Star seems to follow Zhu’s recipe. I think Zhu’s recipe is very good for making shrimp with lobster sauce. The lobster sauce should taste like silken bisque with the addition of vegetables and shrimp.
Zhu uses shaoxing wine, chicken broth, oyster sauce, salt, and pepper to form the basis of her sauce. She mixes cornstarch and water on the side to thicken the sauce, but as I mentioned I do not think Golden Star uses slurry.
Once you make the sauce, the next step is for cooks to stir-fry shrimp till cooked and set it aside. Next, you add garlic, ginger, and onion to the wok as seasoning and stir-fry it till the smell of garlic rises. Then, you add the sauce and vegetables, shrimp, and slurry, if you are using it.
When the sauce boils, turn off the wok. Drizzle in the egg and let it sit before swirling it to make threads. As the final touch, sesame is added before serving.
At Golden Star, the chefs add peas, carrots, mushrooms, and water chestnuts to their version of shrimp in lobster sauce. I like this dish, because it is delicious, but it is nice to know that the carrots have Vitamin A, the peas have Vitamin C, the mushrooms have B Vitamins, and the water chestnuts have antioxidants and fiber.
For a really great Chinese-American shrimp with lobster sauce that is reasonably priced, healthy, and delicious, you cannot beat Golden Star in Salinas, California.
(Note: There is parking behind the restaurant and a passageway out to Main Street where they are located.)
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
