Restaurant Lobster

[Chris Amirault]

Having spent a bit of time over at the Bookbinder's thread in the Pennsylvania forum, I realized that I have never eaten a lobster out at a restaurant. Growing up in Massachusetts with lots of family in Maine, I ate lobster quite often, usually outdoors on a newspaper-strewn picnic table, accompanied by lots of Fanta, Schaefer, cole slaw, and Humpty Dumpty chips. But I can't remember ever eating it in a restaurant.

And I can't quite imagine it now. Given the price, mess, and risk of overcooking, what's the point? The stale bread crumbs, oyster crackers, little plastic bibs, what?!?

edited for formatting and to name the correct beer, "Schaefer[, which] is the one beer to have when you're having more than one!" -- ca

Edited April 22, 2005 by chrisamirault (log)

[Tess]

Two words: stuffed lobster.

[pam claughton]

Two words: stuffed lobster.

←

Yes, those are the two most important words!!!! I agree.

Here's a few more that aren't bad either.

Lazy man lobster.....fresh lobster meat, sauteed in creamy butter, drizzled with a hint of sherry and served in a casserole dish on a bed of buttery stuffing like crumbs.

Or, Lobster Thermidor, the Yarmouth House in West Yarmouth, MA has one that is to die for. Plenty of fresh lobster meat is mixed into a creamy sauce with a bit of mustard, sherry, cream, mushrooms, and cheese, and served in the shell.

and of course there's Lobster Newburg, just a rich, creamy sauce filled with large sweet fresh lobster pieces.

Or, when you want something a bit less formal, how about a lobster roll? A buttered grilled soft hot dog roll stuffed with fresh lobster meat and a dab of mayo?

:)

[Chris Amirault]

Two words: stuffed lobster.

←

Say more. In my experience, that has consisted primarily of doubly- and thus over-cooked meat dumped into shells or ceramics, with some butter and bread crumbs tossed on it. For $28.95, no less.

Since there are now two claims to this dish's superiority, I want answers. Answers, dammit!

[greenwich st]

Well, we do lobster all the time, but I can imagine that many people are afraid to deal with them -- otherwise, nobody would get that Woody Allen scene (in Annie Hall, right?) Even our cats keep a respectful distance when we hold the big ones done to floor level to let them take a whiff. And honestly, if my guy wasn't willing to do the live-scalding thing on a regular basis, I'd probably wuss out myself.

And even he wimps out when it comes to knifing them!

[slbunge]

I'm with you Chris. The flashy lobster dinner (steamed or even grilled) holds no interest to me when I am at a restaurant. For the most part the meal is overpriced and is a pain to eat whilst trying to keep my outfit presentable for whatever we are going to do after leaving the restaurant.

I do like lobster meat in other dishes, from risotto to ravioi to the famous lobster roll or even the lobster burger at Citronelle in Washington DC. But the flashy red crustacean on the plate with drawn butter? No thanks.

[pam claughton]

Two words: stuffed lobster.

←

Say more. In my experience, that has consisted primarily of doubly- and thus over-cooked meat dumped into shells or ceramics, with some butter and bread crumbs tossed on it. For $28.95, no less.

Since there are now two claims to this dish's superiority, I want answers. Answers, dammit!

←

Well, go somewhere where they won't over cook it. :) Back in the silly internet days when we used to go out to dinner at the drop of a hat, we were on a strange mission to try baked stuffed lobster EVERYWHERE in Boston, to determine who had the best. A tad obsessive, but we didn't care. :) Our hands down favorite, and keep in mind this restaurant is not the least bit trendy, and some would even consider it old fashioned and stuff, and it's been a few years now, but we had baked stuffed lobsters at Jimmy's Harborside by the World Trade Center, at least a dozen times. We kept going back, as they were the absolute favorite, and no one really came close. They keep it simple, and stuff the lobster with butter crumbs, a little onion and seasoning, and the key ingredient...more lobster. But, they then changed this to be a seafood stuffing, which is ok, but not as good, but you can still get it stuffed with more lobster, you just ask for it, and pay extra.

It's been a few years though, like I said, so there could very well be some great new contenders...

Pam

[Chris Amirault]

Lazy man lobster.....fresh lobster meat, sauteed in creamy butter, drizzled with a hint of sherry and served in a casserole dish on a bed of buttery stuffing like crumbs.

←

Oh, now you've got me going. Lazy man lobster is a crime, I tell you, a veritable crime!

Once, my Gloucesterman grandfather sat me upon his knee and said, "Lobster must be earned." (Or, at least, he would have said that, if I had asked, or should have said that, anyway.) Like the fertile yet rocky New England soil, the lobster gives its sweetness most to those who apply good, hard toil to the recalcitrant body, resistant to giving up its goods.

[Jonathan Edwards]Lazy men deserveth lobstah not.[/Jonathan Edwards]

[pam claughton]

I'm with you Chris.  The flashy lobster dinner (steamed or even grilled) holds no interest to me when I am at a restaurant.  For the most part the meal is overpriced and is a pain to eat whilst trying to keep my outfit presentable for whatever we are going to do after leaving the restaurant.

I do like lobster meat in other dishes, from risotto to ravioi to the famous lobster roll or even the lobster burger at Citronelle in Washington DC.  But the flashy red crustacean on the plate with drawn butter?  No thanks.

←

I do agree with both of you on boiled lobster though. I won't order that out. It's a stay at home treat, when you don't mind getting covered with butter.

[Chris Amirault]

She who reports a good meal at Jimmy's Harborside has done far, far more research than should be expected of anyone, and has my respect.

Back in the silly internet days when we used to go out to dinner at the drop of a hat, we were on a strange mission to try baked stuffed lobster EVERYWHERE in Boston, to determine who had the best. A tad obsessive, but we didn't care. :) [snip]It's been a few years though, like I said, so there could very well be some great new contenders...

←

Well, as a smart person once said, the best thing to do with one's obsessions is to foist them upon unwitting others. Perhaps in service to eG and New Englanders everywhere the research needs doing once again!

[JEL]

chris, i have the answer to your dilemna........

your spoiled.........

i grew up on a farm in IL , we had all home raised meat, poultry, vegetables and fruit........

i never knew why people ordered a pork chop or a steak........

or ate off of the abominably bad salad bar, when we had so much GREAT stuff right at the house.....

kids took cold cut sandwiches on wonder bread in their lunch and i had ham or roast beef on homemade bread.....

[Chris Amirault]

Now, now, we're not talking about recipes that include lobster. The test here is the following:

"I went out to dinner last night!"

"Really? What did you have?"

"I had LOBSTER!!"

That's what we're talking about.

edited to replace a double-post and to clarify arbitrary thread rules -- ca

Edited April 22, 2005 by chrisamirault (log)

[ghostrider]

Well, I've never done it at a restaurant outside of Maine, so I'm not sure if this qualifies, but.....

We went out one night last year after an exhausting day getting to Portland. It was high summer, so hard to find a table anywhere. At the place we finally found that had an opening, lobster fra diavolo simply seemed to be the most appealing thing on the menu that night. And it was pretty darned good.

I should clarify that this was a whole lobster in the diavolo sauce on top of a pile of spaghetti, this was not a dish of dainty sauced lobster meat. You think that eating a regular steamed lobster w drawn butter is messy, you ain't seen nothin'!

Apart from situations like that, we save our lobster cravings for the dockside lobster cookery we frequent, because most anything else is less satisfying.

P.S. Good call on the Humpty Dumpty chips. Still the best!

Edited April 22, 2005 by ghostrider (log)

[pam claughton]

She who reports a good meal at Jimmy's Harborside has done far, far more research than should be expected of anyone, and has my respect.

Back in the silly internet days when we used to go out to dinner at the drop of a hat, we were on a strange mission to try baked stuffed lobster EVERYWHERE in Boston, to determine who had the best. A tad obsessive, but we didn't care. :) [snip]It's been a few years though, like I said, so there could very well be some great new contenders...

←

Well, as a smart person once said, the best thing to do with one's obsessions is to foist them upon unwitting others. Perhaps in service to eG and New Englanders everywhere the research needs doing once again!

←

Yes, I agree, it may be time for more research. Good idea! :)

We only ever had baked stuffed lobster at Jimmy's, so I don't know much about the rest of their menu.

[wlg]

I agree 100% that naked lobster is always better either at home or at a shoreside picnic table. Table gets covered with newspapers, extra napkins are set out, butter is melted, chips poured out of a bag into a bowl, dill pickles quartered, beer bottle lids popped (or sometimes wine, for the diehard winos), and bugs get steamed (in salt water with sea weed, if available) just until done. Simple and excellent.

After a couple of over-cooked baked stuffed lobsters that tasted more like stuffing than lobster, I'm afraid I gave up on those. Lobster in cream/sherry sauces I find too often loses that delicate sea-fresh sweetness that you get in the fresh-steamed variety. Melted butter is really too much. (Sounds like I'm looking at getting the big pot out of the basement this weekend....)

[ghostrider]

Well, go somewhere where they won't over cook it. :)  Back in the silly internet days...

Pam

←

OT, but I am intrigued by this phrase. Are we now in the serious internet days?

[bavila]

The way Chris feels about lobster is the way I feel about crabs, which is sort of blasphemous in the Chesapeake Bay area -- at least to those who don't know what it is to catch their own.

I understand that this mindset could be judged as being "spoiled". I suppose I was "spoiled" to grow up in south Louisiana where there isn't really any crab season because you can get them year round. And you don't see boiled/steamed crabs in restaurants often because if you don't have a boat, you know someone who does, and you go and set your traps and get your own crabs. Then you take them home and cook them yourself, along with the bonus mac-daddy catfish you caught, fried up in corn meal, thank you very much.

So for me to pay $75 for a dozen steamed crabs here in Maryland, knowing that more than likely they came from Louisiana or somewhere else other than the Bay (we've done a good job of depleting this treasure), is really just hard to stomach.

As for lobster, unless you live in an area where they're caught easily, I don't have a problem with restaurant consumption. In fact, I have fond memories of a Thanksgiving dinner in Costa Rica with grilled langosta in a beachside restaurant. Worse things have happened.

[Chris Amirault]

Now this is what I'm talking about:

I agree 100% that naked lobster is always better either at home or at a shoreside picnic table.  Table gets covered with newspapers, extra napkins are set out, butter is melted, chips poured out of a bag into a bowl, dill pickles quartered, beer bottle lids popped (or sometimes wine, for the diehard winos), and bugs get steamed (in salt water with sea weed, if available) just until done.  Simple and excellent. 

←

Simple, excellent -- and better than you can possibly get at a restaurant, with very few (and very expensive) exceptions. My point exactly! You are clearly a clear-headed, right-minded, intelligent, very friendly and attractive person.

[Tess]

OK, I think it is indeed partly a regional thing. When I lived in new England, I would often eat whole lobster while out, but always at clambake types of places where that was the main feature. It would not have occurred to me to order it in a fancy restaurant. I remember having good lobster at a place outside New Haven, Ct, where you could get it either boiled or broiled/grilled, and at a number of places in Maine. (I didn't live near the coast and didn't cook lobster at home.)

The guy I live with is a Midwesterner and he orders those lazy-man type dishes a lot. In Las Vegas, we stay at the Rio and there is a casual seafood place there called Buzio's that does pretty good stuffed seafood. I know, ordering seafood in the desert is crazy, but I find that kind of dish quite tasty. I would say that for a lot of the populace, all seafood is primarily a vehicle for butter and bread crumbs.

[pam claughton]

Well, go somewhere where they won't over cook it. :)  Back in the silly internet days...

Pam

←

OT, but I am intrigued by this phrase. Are we now in the serious internet days?

←

Ha! I meant that the market was just silly, and insanely good. I worked as a headhunter to internet companies that were hiring like mad, paying crazy salaries if you even knew what java was it seemed. Everyone was making, and spending a lot of money back then, and restaurants were very happy.

:)

[LynDel]

As silly as it sounds, and I'll freely admit feeling foolish about it, I used to be squeamish about buying a live lobster somewhere and taking it home to cook it. If I ordered it in a restaurant, it arrives in front of me already 'killed' and cooked. I didn't have to be so 'aware' of it being a living creature before eating it.

I feel really stupid admitting that on a food board.

But now I've got a lot more experience in handling and butchering food to eat, since the summer I spent with my aunts and uncles with their dairy cows, pigs and chickens. That obtaining food isn't just going to the supermarket to buy food already prepared and packaged at the supermarket.

But that's just my perspective on it. Perhaps other people believe it's really an elegant or romantic meal? Growing up near Boston, I'd much prefer cooking my own and having a picnic Saturday afternoon.

[Chris Amirault]

As silly as it sounds, and I'll freely admit feeling foolish about it, I used to be squeamish about buying a live lobster somewhere and taking it home to cook it. If I ordered it in a restaurant, it arrives in front of me already 'killed' and cooked. I didn't have to be so 'aware' of it being a living creature before eating it.

I feel really stupid admitting that on a food board.

←

Not at all! I'll bet that there are quite a few people who would agree, in fact.

I learned how to kill a lobster a while back, and the first few efforts were... shall we say... trying. It's particularly wiggy cut up a lobster quickly enough to be able to watch the meat wiggle in the split tail...

[pam claughton]

As silly as it sounds, and I'll freely admit feeling foolish about it, I used to be squeamish about buying a live lobster somewhere and taking it home to cook it. If I ordered it in a restaurant, it arrives in front of me already 'killed' and cooked. I didn't have to be so 'aware' of it being a living creature before eating it.

I feel really stupid admitting that on a food board.

←

Don't feel stupid! I only just learned a few years ago that most fish markets and supermarkets will steam the lobsters for you, so you don't have to deal with it, and most don't charge either. Makes it easy to pick them up ready to eat, throw out the newspaper on the table, heat the butter, and go....

:)

[ghostrider]

Ha! I meant that the market was just silly, and insanely good. I worked as a headhunter to internet companies that were hiring like mad, paying crazy salaries if you even knew what java was it seemed.  Everyone was making, and spending a lot of money back then, and restaurants were very happy.

:)

←

Thanx! I get it now. Back to lobstering.....

[Bob Musa]

Our family has given up on anything other than home prepared lobster. Our favorite: teriaki glazed lobster bbq'd (actually baked in a BBQ would be more accurate) over mesquite. This was a staple at the Maui Onion in the old Renaissance Hotel in Maui years ago. I don't think they do it any more since ownership changed. There is nothing ... absolutely nothing... better.