Don’t be afraid to get down and dirty
Eating lobster requires you to dig deep with your hands to get at the East Coast meat
The most confounding and intimidating Canadian fare for me? Hands down, lobster. Given my husband’s general distaste for any crustaceans, eating lobster has never been part of our family tradition. So when I hear friends and colleagues wax rhapsodic about lobster, some of them asking family flying in from Nova Scotia to bring a box of fresh ones, I’m curious to find out whether it’s all that it’s cracked up to be. (Sorry! Couldn’t resist the pun.)
I have enjoyed lobsters in other forms — in pastas and rolls, mainly. But I wanted to find out how to eat a lobster like a Maritimer. So I headed to Rodney’s Oyster House for a meal with the restaurant’s co-owner and manager, Bronwen Clark.
Philosophy
Whether you consider lobster a luxury food or just everyday fare depends on where you’re from, Clark said.
“For people on the East Coast, and a lot of them are lobster fishermen, they are used to eating lobster . . . For your lunch you would get a lobster roll, when all you wanted was a sandwich made with bologna. A lot of people I come across (from the Maritimes), they want to have steak and potatoes,” she said.
“But for someone born and raised in Ontario, it can be a special treat.”
Eating lobsters has been part of her family’s culture and history, Clark said.
Their family gatherings often turn out to be lobster boils. When they were younger, her siblings would have lobster races.
“We’d get them out of the coolers, name them and were responsible for putting them in the pot,” she said.
For her customers, lobsters are definitely a luxury item. “Preparing lobsters can seem messy and daunting, and people want to outsource it.”
Technique
The first rule of eating a lobster is to put on a bib.
“Bibs are good, they protect your clothes. Don’t be shy about it,” Clark said.
“Some people are embarrassed by them. But eating lobsters is one of those times you should really embrace it.”
And use your hands to reach into the hard-to-get parts. “When people start digging around with a fork, that’s when you break up and destroy the meat.”
When dealing with the claw, it’s important to snap off the small pincer part, and ensure that the tips have been cut off, she added.
“That will break the suction off in the shell, and the meat will just slide out.”
Other than that, it’s all a matter of taking your time and getting down and dirty.
“Don’t be afraid,” Clark said. “Get the meat in the knuckles, suck it out of the legs. Don’t just pull out the tail and claw meat and be done.” Facts It doesn’t matter too much which part of the lobster you start with, Clark says. That’s a matter of personal preference. However, her grandfather did serve up lobster as a test for his daughters’ suitors, she says. He could tell how the dates would fare based on what parts they picked.
“He’d put the platter in the middle of the table, and ask the new boyfriend to go first. If he went for the tail, it meant they were no good — getting the meat that takes the least amount of effort,” Clark said, laughing. “If they went for the legs, they were keepers.”
So there you have it! This is how to eat . . . lobster.