Restaurant Lobster

[NulloModo]

I actually have the opposite experience, I have never had lobster (well, fresh lobster anyway) anywhere outside of restaurant setting.

I remember several years ago every grocery store in the area had a lobster tank in the seafood section, now it is extremely rare. Lobster at home is tricky, just like crabs at home. There is the whole business of killing, cleaning, etc. At a restaurant that is all taken care of for you, and I have never had anything but perfect lobster in any restaurant I have ordered it in (well, sometimes they are a bit small, but other than that...)

It seems similar to the steakhouse phenomenon though. It is very easy to cook a great steak at home, and a lot easier to get a great cut of beef than a good lobster, around here at least, yet still steakhouses are quite popular. Steak is good, lobster is good, and if you are in the mood for it without going through the hassle, the restaurants are an attractive option.

[Tess]

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.

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Sounds great! Would you share the recipe?

[Holly Moore]

There is restaurant lobster and there is restaurant lobster. The cliche pound and a quarter chicken lobster specialed out at $9.99 is a waste of money and lobster.

But it's hard to find a three pounder here in Philadelphia other than at a Palm or a Bookbinders and when I'm hankering for lobster that's where I want to start. On a good day and when someone's buying, maybe a four pounder. That size lobster I'll happily leave to a restaurant professional to cook.

In Maine it's partially an ambience thing. Outdoors at a lobster pound, sun setting, overlooking a lobster fleet or the Atlantic Ocean. Lobster seems to taste better.

[Behemoth]

I remember a really good place to have lobster in upstate NY, from when I was a kid. Don't know if it is still there. You basically took a number and they called you when it was ready, cafeteria style. No need to dress up, and the lobster was never overcooked. They did great hush puppies, too.

Oh, and before it became a semi fancy restaurant, there was a fish store on 18th street in Philadelphia where they had picnic tables in the back, (you sometimes had to share the table) and for some absurdly small sum of money they would boil your lobster for you while you watched. You also got corn on the cob and some other vegetable. Oh, and it was BYOB so you could bring beer. I think it was a closely guarded secret, that place.

Having said that, my favorite version was when my grandparents would break out the giant pot full o' lobsters, clams, potatoes, corn...

[Bob Musa]

  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. There is nothing ...  absolutely nothing...  better.

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Sounds great! Would you share the recipe?

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It's hardly a recipe at all. Its more technique than anything else. We just had this last weekend and I wish I would have taken pictures. In any event:

1. use small to medium size lobster tails. I've found that it's really difficult to get a consistent doneness thru large tails when barbequeing.

2. Using shears, cut the back shell in half all the way from the front to the tail. Do not remove the shell but instead peel the shell away from the sides of the lobster meat so that the top half is exposed. The shell will pop back into place as soon as you let go of it but that's ok.

3. grab your favoprite teriaki sauce and liberally douse the meat, pulling the shell away from the meat in order to get the sauce into contact with as much meat as possible.

4. Throw the tails into a plastic bag and back into the fridge and go start the fire. Use lots of fuel. Build the fire off to one side (it helps to have a big grill).

5. When the fire is ready throw the tails on (back side up leg side down). Keep away from direct heat if you can and close the lid. Wait 10 to 12 minutes and check. When they look like they're getting halfway done turn them cut side down over the flame for a few minutes and get a little crust on them.

6. Then move them to the side and crack the lid open (i use a brick) and leave them there until ready to eat. (Could be another 15 minutes - depends on size - you have to use a visual inspection).

The trick is not to overdo them or underdo them (although i'm always surprised at how long they take). Also, i'm a little weird in that i prefer to err on the side of overdoneness. Its seems difficult to make them too tough using this method. They always turn out tender even when "overdone".

Next time i'll take pictures and use my stopwatch ...

[Holly Moore]

Oh, and before it became a semi fancy restaurant, there was a fish store on 18th street in Philadelphia where they had picnic tables in the back, (you sometimes had to share the table) and for some absurdly small sum of money they would boil your lobster for you while you watched. You also got corn on the cob and some other vegetable. Oh, and it was BYOB so you could bring beer. I think it was a closely guarded secret, that place.

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I'm guessing you're talking about Neil Stein's first, I think, restaurant, the Fishmarket at 18th and Sansom. Late 70's and the 80's Got very expensive. Much better value at a little cafe across the street and up a flight of stairs. Though Neil served a great shrimp and tomato pie.

[markk]

What a great thread, and what great responses.

Two words: stuffed lobster.

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Yes, I LOVE stuffed lobster. As I kid I ate it at a place on Long Island called Patricia Murphy's - I mean, I was probably 8 when my lobster-addict mother introduced me to it. And I still go to the Ironbound area of Newark to the Spanish-Continental restaurants in search of one (sadly, they all seem to use clams in their stuffing, which to me is a no-no - I want just crabmeat and shrimp.

Two words: stuffed lobster.

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Or, Lobster Thermidor...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.

I love these !! I went to Emeril's restaurant Delmonico's in New Orleans a few weeks after it opened, and they featured a Lobster Newburg on the menu, but I think in reality if was a Thermidor. It was a 2.5 lb. lobster, and it was the stuff dreams are made of. The tail was left in whole, intact, and the sweetness and juiciness mingled with the rich cream and whatever other ingredients (lots of what we thought was lobster meat, crabmeat, shrimp) in the filling. It was obscenely delicious.

Lobster in cream/sherry sauces I find too often loses that delicate sea-fresh sweetness that you get in the fresh-steamed variety. 

And they shouldn't! That's just a sign of bad preparation. A great lobster preparation - whether stuffed, or Newburged or Thermidored, should retain that delicate sea-fresh sweetness; when it's done right, hard as it is to believe, some of these preparations even enhance the basically magnificent-by-itself plain lobster.

There is restaurant lobster and there is restaurant lobster.  The cliche pound and a quarter chicken lobster specialed out at $9.99 is a waste of money and lobster. 

But it's hard to find a three pounder here in Philadelphia... and when I'm hankering for lobster that's where I want to start.  On a good day and when someone's buying, maybe a four pounder.  That size lobster I'll happily leave to a restaurant professional to cook.

My thoughts EXACTLY. I also love a plain lobster as well, but I prefer it broiled to boiled - but let me specify "expertly" broiled - it should still be moist and sweet and juicy, but the charring of the shell and the top of the meat actually bring out the sweetness.

And a preparation that nobody mentioned, that is a magnificent way to bring out the best in a lobster, is the Cantonese method of stir-frying with ginger and scallion. I got turned onto this a long time ago. When done properly, the flavors complement, and enhance the sweet lobster flavor, which is released into the mix as you pick every morsel out of the shell, the lobster being sauteed cut-up. Here's one photo

I have a restaurant near me (Jersey City) that gets me 3.5 pounders by special order and prepares them for me, along with a green vegetable. You can see the whole thing here if you like.

[rooftop1000]

I gave up ordering lobster in restaurants just because of price....but I did have a few home cooking adventures .... like when I was 15 and we let the lobster go on the floor, cut the claw bands and everything to play with the cat

but the best/worst? was when our local supermarket ran their summer special and someone oopsed, they didnt get enough 1 1/2 pounders so they let everything go at like 3.99#. So I end up with a maybe 5# lobster go home put big wads of foil in my spaghetti pot, lemons, bay leaf, peppercorns , some water......wait for it to boil......ummmmm the lobster is waaaaaay bigger than the pot. Had to take it out back and whack it into pieces

good thing we learned how to kill em in school

Tracey

[Behemoth]

I'm guessing you're talking about Neil Stein's first, I think, restaurant, the Fishmarket at 18th and Sansom.  Late 70's and the 80's  Got very expensive.  Much better value at a little cafe across the street and up a flight of stairs.  Though Neil served a great shrimp and tomato pie.

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Is that right? I went there in the late 1990's and it was still a fish store. It seemed quite cheap at the time, and my friends who took me there were grad studens...

[ghostrider]

THat story reminds me of a couple decades back in an oceanfront cabin in Maine. It was a rustic place & the owners didn't mind that we brought our cats with us.

Got a bag of lobsters that afternoon, didn't want to bring them inside cuz we knew the cats would have at them. Figgered no harm in leaving bag on front stoop for a couple hours - it being Maine, it was plenty cool that day even though it was still technically summer.

Wrong. In spite of the late afternoon light, a bag of lobsters was still too much for the local raccoons to resist. We found a ripped up bag & many lobster shell shards scattered around.

Don't recall what we had for dinner that night but it wasn't lobster.

[Holly Moore]

I'm guessing you're talking about Neil Stein's first, I think, restaurant, the Fishmarket at 18th and Sansom.  Late 70's and the 80's  Got very expensive.  Much better value at a little cafe across the street and up a flight of stairs.  Though Neil served a great shrimp and tomato pie.

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Is that right? I went there in the late 1990's and it was still a fish store. It seemed quite cheap at the time, and my friends who took me there were grad studens...

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Then you are probably talking Seafood Unlimited, but that's on 20th Street, not 18th.

[Behemoth]

Then you are probably talking Seafood Unlimited, but that's on 20th Street, not 18th.

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That's it. I didn't think it was a Neil Stein type of place. Way too student friendly prices, and the food wasn't exactly award winning. But the setting was fun.

[Holly Moore]

What confused me is that when the Fishmarket first opened it, and that was before I moved to Philadelphia, it was just that, a fish market with a few tables for cooked seafood. He had opened it at the corner of 18th and Sansom and then expanded it into a couple of more buildings and turned it into a full service and very expensive fish restaurant.

[peppyre]

I have only ordered Lobster once in a restaurant here and that was for a very special occassion. It was just a whole lobster that I think had either been boiled or steamed. It was good, but the ones I do at home are much much better. I also think that letting the cat play with them for a little bit enhances the flavour i know, I'm twisted.

[phaelon56]

I'm sure the horror story I'm about to regale you with is just a fluke.. an aberration... a chance event in the culinary Universe... but I never bothered with lobster in a restaurant after hearing this.

Years ago we had a restaurant in Syracuse that was, for a lengthy period of time, the only seafood restaurant in town. They were noted for their "fresh lobster". They had a tank in the lobby - you picked the exact critter you wanted and they took it back to the kitchen to "cook it" for you.

But that lobster actually went straight into a holding tank in the kitchen to be returned to the front tank after all the patrons had gone home. The standard practice in this joint was to steam lobsters en masse when an order came in and then stick 'em in the walk-in fridge. Each and every "cooked to order" lobster was actually just zapped in the microwave to heat it and served with drawn butter - some of them close to one week old (they got fish shipments only once or twice each week).

I was not there to witness this but the sad tale was shared with me by a very reliable line cook - a few years after this place had gone out of business. He had no agenda and no reason to make it up - the entire business came up when we were sharing kitchen/workplace horror stories over drinks one night.

I've heard worse kitchen stories but this one is right up there....

[Chris Amirault]

Thanks, Owen, for your tale, which I will resist using to draw sweeping generalizations about every restaurant that serves lobsters. (I'm trying to show restraint.)

Having said that, it strikes me that -- unless you're a Maine lobster shack with a few 50 gallon pots roiling away at all hours -- it would be a challenge to steam or boil lobsters as they are ordered. Does anyone know how it is done in more reputable restaurants?

[phaelon56]

I rarely visit restaurants where lobster is a significant item but at Seabra's Marisqueria, a moderately priced Portuguese place in Jersey City's Ironbound section, seafood in general and lobster in particular is high profile.

They have a big lobster tank adjacent to the kitchen door in the dining room. There's also a huge plate glass window allowing a view of the kitchen - in the front of the window just behind the glass the day's fresh fish (whole of course) are also nicely displayed on crushed ice.

You choose the lobster and can actually see them take it over... still kicking... and drop it in that big ol' pot of wAter that is ready all day long just for that purpose. You can also stand there and watch them clean your fish before it's cooked but no one bothers. This joint gets mostly Portuguese and Brazlian neighborhood folks wh take their seafood seriously - you can trust that it's getting cooked the right way.

[pam claughton]

Thanks, Owen, for your tale, which I will resist using to draw sweeping generalizations about every restaurant that serves lobsters. (I'm trying to show restraint.)

Having said that, it strikes me that -- unless you're a Maine lobster shack with a few 50 gallon pots roiling away at all hours -- it would be a challenge to steam or boil lobsters as they are ordered. Does anyone know how it is done in more reputable restaurants?

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I worked for many years on Cape Cod at the Riverway Lobster House, and we always cooked to order.

[johnnyd]

We always had a huge pot or two boiling away all day for lobster orders too.

Every so often, when I'm feeling lazy but hungry for lobster, I'll get the lobster "dinner" at mid or low end seafood places around Portland: Lobster, steamers, corn on the cob and slaw as it is usually done perfectly and not too expensive.

One time I was at J's Oyster in downtown Portland and decided to try a Lobster w/linguini dish that had a splash of Pernod that was out of this world. J's isn't the most reliable place for dinner, but this was downright excellent.

Then I saw a recipe by Fore St. chef Sam Hayward that used winter lobster meat with a vanilla-bean infused cream. I can't find it right now, but the point was that the lobsters that are stuck in their pounds all winter lose some flavor and this was a way to get back some zing.

I had my fishmonger steam off two 1 1/4 pounders (no extra charge) and went for it on a cold January day. Opened a new horizon of flavor for me.

[mizducky]

Heh. Dare I suggest that there are sentimental as well as culinary, practical, and economic factors at work here?

My very first lobster dinner (that I can remember) was when I was a kid, on vacation to Cape Cod with my family. It was at a restaurant that, with adult perspective on childhood memory, probably was a tourist trap all the way, but when I was a kid I of course didn't know that--and apparently my parents didn't care, or maybe they were just glad they found a place that was okay about families with kids on their first foray into the Cape. There, amidst the fake fishing-net-and-floats decor, I assayed my first boiled lobster aided by the helpful if corny instructions on the paper placemat. It was a lot of fun, if a little daunting to keep the mess under control. And it tasted wonderful!--apparently, even tourist traps in Cape Cod can manage a tasty lobster, if for no other reason than they do a huge volume of them.

On later Cape Cod vacations, my parents got a little more savvy, because we stumbled upon this classic lobster shack, with the weather-beaten picnic tables out back and everything, and basically stuck to that for most of our lobster consumption. Even as a kid I appreciated feeling a lot less constrained about making an unholy mess as I went for every last edible bit of my bug. So now I've got these picnic tables, the wood turned gray from many seasons out in the Cape damp, their plastic-table-clothed tops littered with paper plates full of lobster shells and corncobs from our feast, indelibly linked in my mind with What A Lobster Dinner Should Be.

But I no longer live within easy access of a classic lobster shack like that. Or even a Cape Cod tourist trap restaurant. I have very occasionally cooked a live lobster at home, though it is a bit of mess and bother. But if I did really crave lobster, that's what I'd do to guarantee a good meal, because right now I just can't afford to dine in places that I have some hope of doing it right, and it just isn't worth it going to the cheap places since, unlike even the cheap places on Cape Cod, the cheap places here are almost guaranteed to screw it up.

Case in point: I had the recent misfortune to dine at a Red Lobster for the very first time some months ago. Not my choice, but that of my dining companions who were treating, so I felt like I couldn't object--even though I couldn't help feeling a little underwhelmed as this was supposed to be my companions' big "thank you" for a bunch of business favors I had done them. But my sense of underwhelm only grew when I tasted my boiled lobster. Overboiled, rubbery, watery, with a nasty aftertaste that made me wonder when they'd last changed the pot of water the poor thing had been dunked into--though now I suspect that the poor bug may have been boiled in advance and then nuked for serving as described upthread a bit. And here I had ordered the plain boiled lobster thinking that, as the plainest preparation, it was the one they could screw up least. Perhaps I should have ordered one of the dishes with tons of stuffing and sauce and etc., so as to best conceal the damage done. All I can say is, if places like Red Lobster are the main exposure many Americans get to seafood in general and lobster in particular, it's no wonder to me that I run into so many people who say they don't care for the stuff.

Edited April 24, 2005 by mizducky (log)

[NulloModo]

Mizducky -

I'm sorry your red lobster experience was so bad. I honestly haven't had the lobster their in ages (I do like the catfish though) but the last time I did it was quite good, but that was back when they had the live lobster tanks out front and you could pick which one you wanted, cooked to order, not sure if they still do that...

[pam claughton]

All this talk of lobster, on this thread, and the lobster roll one in New England, sent me off to get my usual cure....a nice little lobster roll, from the place around the corner, Wood's Seafood, on the Plymouth Waterfront. This is a little piece of pure heaven.....big chunks of chilled, fresh lobster, topped with a dollop of mayo and dash of paprika, and served in a buttery, grilled roll.

Edited April 24, 2005 by pam claughton (log)

[johnnyd]

Dee-yamn! That looks good Pam!

I would guess that particular Red Lobster, being far from the source, might have squeeked on that dish of yours mizD. What a rotten experience. I can't see them taking shortcuts on their signature dish, but you never know.

Once I ordered a fried clam platter at a local Red Lobster wannabe around here and got served a pile of everything they fry at the place with a topping of fried clams. They were too busy to bother with a correction - and it turned out more interesting - but who's minding the store, here?!

[Carlovski]

I think this is definitely to do with where and how you grew up. I'm sure for most people it is the other way round - lobster being something they only ever have at a restaurant - never at home.

[handmc]

Does anyone have a decent recipe for baked stuffed lobster.