Lobster Rolls

[heyjude]

Hi, Brooke. I've enjoyed all your books and columns-thanks. I've been craving a Provincetown lobster roll(I used to make them at the Town House Restaurant)and I wondered why the top cut bun is used in New England and not elsewhere. Or at least not in the Pacific Northwest. Where and when did it appear?

[Brooke Dojny]

Heyjude--

I have been researching this question for years and have yet to come up with the reason that top-split buns are an only-in-New England specialty. Does anyone out there have an answer? And if nothing definitive, can anyone speculate? This could be fun!

[Holly Moore]

Because it is New England and that is the way it has always been. Change is measured in generations not years.

Come summer, New England style hot dog rolls are occasionally available in a couple of Philadelphia supermarkets. No rationale as to what days or what weekends. They just pop up on the shelves every once in a while.

What I don't get is why New England style hot dog rolls are not popular all over. People who have them in New England and return home seem to always rave about what a better roll it is. And it is a better roll. The only roll that one can butter and toast on both sides or just the outside.

Furthest afield that I've seen a New England style hot dog roll: Petite St. Vincent, an island resort in the Grenadines. They use it for both hot dogs and authentic lobster rolls (as authentic as one can get with Caribbean lobster). The owner is from MA and flies in all his meat products from a Boston butcher. Gets the top cut rolls at the same time.