Westerners call oysters "sea milk", "magic food given by God" and "magic power of the sea" (that is, precious things given by God). The ancient Romans praised it as "delicious fish at sea", while the Japanese called it "root" and "super rice in the sea". Oysters have long been a delicacy on people's table. At the end of the Roman Empire, the luxurious banquet of the rich consumed many oysters transported from the Atlantic coast by slaves on ice carts every year. Europeans love oysters so much that Shakespeare, a great British writer, lamented that "whoever owns oysters will own the world".
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As early as thousands of years ago, China recorded and evaluated oysters in detail. Su Song, a poet in the Song Dynasty, once described, "(Oysters) can be found all around the ocean today, especially in the South China Sea between Fujian and Tongtai. ..... The newborn seashore is like a fist stone, and those who are good around it are like stone mountains. Every room has a piece of oyster meat, and the size of the meat varies with the room. The big room is like a horseshoe, and the small room is like a finger. Every time the tide comes, the room is open, and bugs come in, so they close up to satisfy their hunger. When the sea people take it, they all dig houses and force them to open with fire to collect their meat. " Tao Hongjing called Christians "left-handed" and "left-handed", hence the name oyster. If you look to the right, you will get an oyster, or if you look to the left with a hint, you won't know which is right. Li Shizhen said in Compendium of Materia Medica that "all kinds of mussels are viviparous and oviparous, and this one is metaplasia, pure male without female, so it is called oyster, and its coarseness also ... cures weakness with meat, and troubles after a hangover, ... it makes the skin smooth, reduces phlegm and hardness, clears away heat and dampness, stops heart pain, and relieves hernia accumulation. Cui Yuxi said in the Book of Food Classics: "Oyster meat can cure sleepless nights, and its cure is uncertain. In the Qing Dynasty, Li recorded in "Notes on South Vietnam": "Oysters are white when eaten raw and yellow when pickled. They are all delicious. "In modern times, people have studied the nutritional value of oysters by using modern science and technology. Nutritionists gave a more detailed evaluation: Oyster meat is rich in nutrition, contains a lot of protein, and is eight essential amino acids for human body. Fat accounts for only a little, and it also contains glycogen, taurine, glutathione, vitamin A, vitamin B 1, vitamin B2, vitamin D, vitamin E, fucose and copper.
In terms of eating oysters, China people have a unique oyster culture in Lingnan, although there is no European hobby and heroism.
Zhanjiang Beibu Gulf is the most ideal natural oyster farm because of the intersection of salt and fresh water, pollution-free water quality and abundant microorganisms. As early as the Song Dynasty, the local oyster people knew how to raise oysters. Taking bamboo poles in the sea as a symbol, they threw stones to raise oysters, making Zhanjiang oysters famous at home and abroad with five characteristics: one big, two fat, three white, four tender and five crisp. But in the cultural tradition of "all kinds of oysters", not only raising oysters, but also eating oysters.
Cantonese people pay attention to "meaning", especially on "eating". In the past, during the Chinese New Year or wedding reception, every household had to eat three kinds of dishes: oyster sauce, Nostoc flagelliforme and pig's hand, and the emphasis was on "making a fortune in a good market". This cultural custom and psychology of paying attention to "meaning" makes "oyster" handed down in a unique form of food culture.