Bargain lobster
Lobster is cheaper and more plentiful than usual, and yet the lobster roll is still a high-priced item, says this article that seems to focus on the price of lobster in New York City.
But I ask you: who on earth buys a lobster roll in New York City?
A slice of pizza, yes. A kosher hot dog or a bagel, mais oui.
But do not get a lobster roll in New York City for whatever foolish price the article lists.
Ah, lobster! It is best enjoyed locally, and by “locally” I mean that the general Boston area and perhaps Cape Cod and its environs are about as far south as you (or they) should journey, even in this age of near-instantaneous food transportation. And IMHO (and I will probably get a great deal of flak for this) a lobster roll is not the way to go, although I admit it has ease of consumption going for it. I prefer to work for my lobster meat, and I prefer the plain boiled New England wrestle-it-out-of-the-shell-with-a-lobster-cracker (or, if it’s soft-shell season, with your own two hands) method. Eat plain or with perhaps a teeny bit of butter, and that’s it.
Yes, there is something about “working” for the tasty lobster that makes it all the more tasty. Each bite is a reward for the effort.
But, I have to admit that when I had my first lobster roll several decades ago in Maine it was quite tasty and I thought it was a wonderful creation.
Although, I would never have one outside of New England. That would be like buying salt water taffy somewhere far from the Jersey Shore. It just doesn’t make sense.
I’m with you. I would rather work for the meat than eat it in some god-awful thing like a pot pie. That just seems criminal, no matter what Thomas Keller says.
Out my way, New England lobster is only available live… although frozen tails can be bought, too, they’re even harder to find.
Naturally, the price is not so reasonable as in Boston.
If the critter is boiled on the spot — doesn’t that count for freshness?
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It is remarkable that lobster was consigned to prisoner’s food right through the Revolutionary War and beyond.
The secret of flash boiling was still undiscovered. Consequently, the roasted lobster tasted like offal.
The evil British had our boys eating lobster seven days a week.
IIRC, the flash boiling technique was discovered only at the end of the 19th Century.
Prior to that, the tribes used them as fertilizer for maize/ corn.
Imagine that!
“…. a teeny bit of butter”
Well, that’s easy for you to say. Myself, I’ve known for a very, very long time that butter…. even a teeny bit… is liquid DEATH!
I never ever use even a smidgen of a jot of a drop. You’d be wise to watch what you eat and do the same!
Honeymoon 43 years ago on Cranberry Isle, Maine. We rented a little one bed room vacation cottage right 15 feet high tide for 5 days after Labor Day. All the transient summer dwellers were gone. It was just us and the local lobstermen. We ate fresh lobster for every dinner during our stay on the Isle. They were inexpensive, very tasty, and butter and lemon juice were in ample supply. We gorged on lobster and beer. And smiled as we wiped off butter drench faces and hands. We woke up in the morning to use scraps of lobster in scrambled eggs. Calm chowder for lunch on the main land was the usually menu. Being flyover hicks we thought we were in heaven. Still is as we want to reprise a visit to the Isle for our 50th.
Yum, lobster.
First day of school was today. I’m a bit punchy after downing 3 glasses of vino before I sleep to start it all over again. Interesting group of kids on the spectrum. Some are sweet and filled with knowledge, others wild and unpredictable with social skills that must be addressed. 7 young people to be herded like chickens to achieve better academic understanding and useable social skills. I love this work. Progress is measured in tiny increments. 182 days later we will be better place to see what progress has occurred.
Small world; my daughter and her husband spent their honeymoon on Cranberry Isle, too, and also loved it.
The only time I ever ate lobster roll was at Popham State Beach in Maine, with my daughter when she was small. The thing that made it memorable was the very aggressive sea gulls — we had to fight them off; they really wanted those rolls.
Back in the summer of 1969 I was stationed in Newport RI. After classes we would drive back to base, but stop at a ‘grinder’ shop – they made the best ‘lobster grinder’ I’ve ever eaten. I’ve eaten plenty of boiled lobsters and they could never compare with those grinders.
“I prefer to work for my lobster meat, . . . .”
This is one time when I see things differently from you, neo.
I do enjoy lobster, very much so, but I get just plain impatient as I work for just a little bit more meat at a time. If the lobster meat came in reasonable chunks, terrific, and there are often a couple of reasonable chunks to be mined in a reasonable lobster. But after those heavenly morsels, for too much time, the grams per second ratio just doesn’t cut it for me. Too meager a consumption rate.
” I mean that the general Boston area and perhaps Cape Cod and its environs are about as far south as you (or they) should journey”
Abbott’s Lobster in the Rough in Noank, CT.
I was diving just this past Sunday and we came up with several pounds of lobster…. off the coast of Jersey. We would pick them from abandoned traps and left the still working traps full of them alone. There’s plenty of live lobster in the NYC area.
Lobster are caught all over the east coast, and a clawless variety lives down in the tropics as well. Just because Maine has a very visible industry doesn’t mean that’s the only place you can get a lobster.
Daniel:
I know it’s not the only place. But they’re tastier there, I think. More importantly, they are far more plentiful, so most of the lobster in restaurants, etc., are from Maine—and they don’t travel well.
You will be amused to learn that here in north-central Ohio, 50 miles from Columbus and on the fringes of Appalachia, there is a rural farmhouse literally out in the sticks on a county (not state) road that advertises live Maine lobster for sale.
We have some in our local Krogers, too, near the sushi bar staffed by real Asians.
If lobsters should stay on a small portion of the east coast, then our tasty midwestern beef should stay in the midwest. (tee hee)
Hey Neo even the spambots like lobster (Puchary kielce…if that’s your REAL name!)
And Parker, you make lobster sound very romantic. I can’t think of a better place to enjoy it than a honeymoon cottage on Cranberry Isle, Maine. I bet you’ll be back there for your 50th and I hope the glut persists until then.
My dad is Boston-raised and I got my first taste of lobster in a roll on family vacations to see the grandparents. Even back then (60s and 70s) the rolls seemed expensive to me. New Englander though he his, my dad doesn’t like to work for his lobster. He’ll take a lobster roll over a whole lobster anytime and I agree.
I have never tried the Connecticut version of the lobster roll but it sounds pretty good. Just steamed lobster, hold the mayo, don’t skimp on the butter.
I will be at the Delaware shore (where crab is king) in a few weeks and I have the same attitude. I’m not interested in pounding the life out of a basket of steamed crabs to get a few scraps of crabmeat. I’ll take it baked in a tasty crabcake, thanks very much!
There was nothing like a visit to the Ogunquit Lobster Pound to get the full on traditional lobster experience.It was always the highlight of the Maine summer vacation 🙂
To top if off, dessert was a short trip to the Viking House for the ice cream smorgasbord.This was all in the days before Ogunquit turned into a foodie destination and gay mecca.
Lobster is best prepared by steaming rather than boiling. But I don’t care, because I can’t eat the stuff, one of a few percentage of folks who have a bad reaction to them, not an allergy, just a horrible gastrointestinal rejection. This after enjoying many a fine lobster on Cape Cod for years, now I can’t even have seafood stock that includes lobster. More for the rest of you to enjoy. My family and friends do love the lobster rolls in the better shacks on the Outer Cape, or Sesuit Harbor Cafe further up the Cape in Dennis, on the bayside.
Right serving style (get crackin’!) but wrong location. Lobster comes from Maine.
I recoil in horror at the thought of a lobster roll. How can you waste the lobster by putting it in a roll? No. Can’t do it.
I prefer mine bathed in butter. Not a little. A flipping’ bath. Sometimes, I add some mince garlic to the butter.
I agree with Dan and Jim. Steam them: Just as fast and easier to get them done but not overdone. Then, don’t scrimp on the butter.
As far as working at it; the crustaceans I grew-up on out West were Dungeness Crabs. The meat is (slightly) better than lobster but much harder to extract. Now that I am in the Boston area it is lobster all the way. The only problem is that three daughters and wife are all bad at and hate extracting the meat from the shell, so I end up doing most of the work for the table.
Our favorite thing to do if there is left-over lobster meat is lobster eggs Benedict. Nothing like a buttery lemony sauce to go with tasty lobster!
I don’t believe I have ever eaten a lobster roll. Ironic, because my sister and her husband live in a town which always is featured in the “Best Lobster Roll” ratings in the Boston Globe.
While I have eaten lobster at restaurants, nearly all of my lobster feasts have been home cooked.
I didn’t try lobster until I was 12 years old. When my parents boiled lobster at home, they had always honored my previous requests to have a hot dog in lieu of lobster. While my parents were of the “you had better eat what is on your plate this is not a restaurant where you order your meal” type, they never objected to my having a hot dog in lieu of lobster. Once I tried lobster, and found out how tasty it was, I understood my parents’ toleration of my hot dog requests- all the more lobster for them.
After taking a late season vacation in Maine some years back and gorging on lobster probably eight days out of 10 we subsequently started staging “lobster fests” for the somewhat extended family; the first week of October I think it was, when the weather was still mild and the afternoon sun still bright. Somewhat extended family meaning my Dad’s three siblings and spouses, with a couple of cousins thrown in, and my sibs and their spouses or dates, and the kids, of those who had any at that point.
We even had the lobsters directly shipped out from Maine, as you can too, before we found that some seafood stores had ample supplies of them more or less locally, if one called ahead.
But the thing grew from a pleasure for 15-20 into a bit of a monster, because well, you know aunt “Paula” really didn’t like lobster much and uncle “Joe” only liked the tails, and instead of twenty whole lobsters and a cauldron of boiling water, we began simultaneously doing “rock lobster” tails and fillet mignon on the grill too, for forty people or so, and I just said, and others agreed, that this wasn’t so much fun anymore.
Might not be a bad idea to start over on the original scale. A box of 8 or 10 big live lobsters in seaweed, and a few friends, a little wine … beer goes good too. Still have all the “equipment”.