🍽️ Hengqin Oysters

Island oysters from Hengqin, fat and sweet.

Hengqin oysters come from the waters around Hengqin Island in Zhuhai, where fresh and salt water meet and plankton is rich, producing oysters famous for being large, fat, white, tender and crisp. The young oysters are suspended in shallow sea water for several years before harvest; the adult oysters are big with milky-white, plump meat, tender and crisp without any grit. Hengqin locals enjoy them many ways—half-shell charcoal grilling, steaming with garlic, or sashimi style—to best show the pure taste. Before Hengqin's urban development, Zhuhai residents went there to gather and eat oysters; today it is a stop on Zhuhai's coastal food tours, where visitors combine a meal of oysters with island sightseeing. Hengqin oysters are a geographic-indication aquaculture product and a calling card of Zhuhai seafood, reflecting the unique oyster flavor of the Pearl River estuary.