San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
RECIPE MAKE THIS THE SUMMER OF THE LOBSTER ROLL.
Riding on boats, hiking through pine treeladen parks and eating lobster while “summering in Maine” was never an experience I had growing up in Southern California — I had no family nor friends nor connection to the state. Instead, my Junes and Julys were filled with football in the front yard, chasing ice cream trucks to the alltoofamiliar tune and downing Doritos while playing Nintendo with my best friends (I was the best at GoldenEye).
But three summers ago, long after I relocated to Northern California, I had the opportunity to visit Vacationland. A couple of my old roommatesturnedbest friends were getting married in a magical place called Christmas Cove in South Bristol, Maine. They grew up summering there, and it’s where they met and fell in love. How could I say no when they invited me to be in their wedding? And how could I not eat my weight in lobsters while there?
I flew into Boston, rented a car and slowly made my way up the Maine coast, eating as much lobster as I possibly could en route. My first stop was at Bob’s Clam Hut in Kittery, an oldschool institution that’s been around since 1956. It serves classic Mainestyle lobster rolls on a toasted topsplit, flatsided hot dog bun griddled in butter then generously stuffed with cold lobster meat lightly dressed in mayonnaise. It was here I also had my first taste of crispy fried whole belly clams — what a plump, delicious delight!
I headed farther north and waited in a long line at a tiny shack that is the legendary Red’s Eats in Wiscasset, which also features a buttergriddled New Englandstyle bun, this time stuffed with an entire pound of lobster meat (that’s two whole lobsters’ worth, if you’re counting). The lobster tasted pristine with a subtle oceanic salinity. Both butter and mayo were served on the side for you to choose to dip or slather as you please — it was everything.
I also ate a delicious, bougie brownbuttered lobster bao situation at Eventide Oyster Co. in Portland — a food city almost as good as Portland, Ore. (Watch out, hot take coming through!)
But perhaps my favorite lobster roll experience was at a little gas station/grocery store hybrid called Osier’s Wharf in South Bristol that my friends took me to — that was their goto spot, and it overlooked the water where fishermen dropped off lobster from their boats. You won’t find this place in any of the guides or lists or “Diners, DriveIns and Dives.” Maybe it was the scenery, but more likely it was the company of my besties that made this place so special, the couple whose love and marriage brought me to Maine in the first place.
The interesting thing about lobster rolls is that although we associate them with Maine, they are actually said to be invented in Milford, Conn., in the 1920s at a defunct restaurant called Perry’s. Connecticutstyle lobster rolls, as opposed to Mainestyle, typically feature lobster meat either warmed in butter or topped with warm drawn butter.
I’ve been missing Maine lately (remember vacations?), so I started making my own lobster rolls at home to fill the void. My version is the best of both worlds: It features lobster rewarmed in tomalley butter, which adds an extra layer of flavor, and it includes a swipe of lemonspiked creamy Kewpie, a superlative Japanese mayonnaise. An Acme Pain de Mie roll provides extra structure — it’s buttered, toasted and buttered again. Because you only live once.