The One... The Only... The Vieve

Rock lobster

Last night I went with a group of people to The Barking Crab, a seafoody restaurant down by the water. I grew up partly in Maine, and went to Nova Scotia every year, and so grew up eating lobsters by default. It's never been fancy food for me -- special, but not elegant in any way. It's primal food, with lots of hands-on smashing and cracking and squelchy bits flying all over the place.

I've been craving lobster for the past month, so I decided to get one (despite the $20/lb market price -- my god). Toes got one too, and he'd never eaten a whole one before, so I promised to walk him through the procedure. When the bright red bug arrived, he looked a little daunted and grossed out, but dove into it with admirable gusto. (At least until he got to the part where you have to separate the tail from the body, which I have to admit is kind of oogy. There's a lot of green slimy stuff in there.)

Since the Barking Crab tries to be all rustic and shit, they don't have the normal metal nutcrackers I'm used to. Instead, there's a smooth rock on the table. The smashy-smashy "me use rock" thing is fun, but not the best tool for the job, since you end up squishing things along with cracking them. Still, it worked pretty well. Though it was covered with butter and lobster juice about halfway through, which made wielding it a little dangerous.

Lobster eating is serious business for me, and it's not like I get to do it every day, so I make sure to get every bit of meat there is to get. I sucked it out of the little legs, and found the little pockets between the gills. These were actually the best lobsters I've had in a long time, packed full of good stuff.

I had to scrape some tamale and juice out of my hair and off of my skirt when I was done, but a little mess is worth the pleasure.

Posted by thevieve at July 20, 2006 11:37 AM