Oyster Sauce

When I was younger, my mom told me that oyster sauce was made from oysters (it kind of is), and since oysters were rare in Xi’an, I always thought that oyster sauce was something to be coveted. It also helped that this sauce was sweet, savory, and rich. Every time we brought out a bottle, tapping it at a specific angle as you would ketchup, my mom would let me lick the remnants off the rim before putting it back in the fridge, an illicit (and, yes, bacteria-friendly) taste that I still remember.