On Saffron Shrimp Pasta Night (last Monday), my original intention was to whip up some lobster rolls (I’ve been craving them ever since our last trip to Ogunquit). When I got to Agata & Valentina, however, my plan was foiled by the realization that the place was charging FORTY-FIVE DOLLARS A POUND. I get that it’s lobster and all, but that is ridiculous. And not happening.
So I Twitter-sourced a bit for the best places to locate fresh lobster meat for something approaching a normal price, and was directed to Hai Thanh Seafood, in Chinatown (thanks, @traveljanthem!). I was totally planning on heading downtown on Saturday…but then it got hot. Like, can’t-even-imagine-stepping-foot-on-the-A-train hot. Fortunately, there is a very fantastic seafood market just a few blocks away from my parents’ apartment, right next to the Port Authority…and they were selling lobster meat for just $20/lb – (1 lb is more than enough for two lobster rolls).
Little side-story: Central Fish Market is the place where I went to purchase the ingredients for the very first “fancy” dish I ever made, when I was 14 years old and first got interested in cooking. My dad’s cousin Debbie is a food stylist (the person who whips up and arranges those gorgeous-looking dishes you see in cookbooks), and one night (I think it was Rosh Hashanah) my parents and I were over at her house for dinner. The grown-ups were chatting over expensive wine, and I was bored, so I wandered into her office, which was filled floor-to-ceiling with cookbooks. I selected one from the shelf – it happened to be a Jamie Oliver cookbook (he continues to be my favorite, even today) – and when Debbie walked by she saw me sitting on the floor with the cookbook, rapt. I told her that I had never cooked, really, but that I wanted to learn, and she offered to let me take the cookbook home.
A few weeks later, I decided to whip up my parents a special dinner. Up until then, the most complicated thing I’d made was my mom’s biscuits, so I nervously spent days planning the menu and locating the exact ingredients. I can’t remember the exact dish I made – I believe it was seared sea scallops and mandarin oranges served over some kind of salad (although I can’t find that Oliver recipe anywhere, and I’ve definitely looked) – but I do remember how incredibly excited I was to serve it, and how I felt when my dad (whose attention I often had trouble catching in those days) asked me question after question after question about the dish. Where had I bought the ingredients? What kind of dressing was this? How had I gotten the scallops to turn that perfect golden color? The idea that I could bring my family together over something as simple as a plate of seafood was…well, life-changing. And a feeling that I’ve sought to re-create with my meals ever since.
You know, I’m not really all that great of a cook. I mean, I’m fine, I suppose, but certainly no prodigy. I don’t love cooking because I can create things that taste or look spectacular (although it’s definitely fun when that happens): I love cooking because I love that it makes my dad ask me questions. I love that it makes my husband roll his eyes back in his head and growl. I love that it can inspire my best friends to sit around our junky old dinner table for hours, laughing, talking, and singing. I guess I just love the conversations.
Anyway, back to the lobster rolls. I returned home from Central Market carrying a pound of lobster meat (and one very tired puppy: Lucy pretty much finished up with that whole walking thing somewhere around 40th Street), went upstairs…and discovered that the damn stuff was frozen solid. Whoops. I guess when I asked for “a pound of lobster” I may have forgotten to mention the “fresh” part. No biggie, though – frozen meat is completely passable for lobster rolls.
Six hours later, alas, the lobster meat still looked like this, and we were starving. So Chinese food was had, but we resolved to revisit the idea for the third time the following morning. The original plan was Lobster Eggs Benedict, but we woke up late, and hungry, and hollandaise sauce was not getting made.
So I slapped together two lobster rolls with the ingredients we had on hand (hot dog buns, mayo, and butter – but, sadly, no lettuce), and stuck a poached egg onto each plate to create a vague approximation of a brunch-related dish. Unphotogenic, perhaps…but delicious. And done.
MY PERFECT LOBSTER ROLL:
1. In a bowl, combine chunked lobster meat (about 1/2 lb per roll is ideal) with two or three generous spoonfuls of mayo and a sprinkling of salt & pepper.
2. Toast basic white hot dog buns (this is not the time to get all fancy with your bread choice), and smear with butter.
3. Add a single lettuce leaf to each bun, and pile in the mayo-ed lobster meat. Serve on a paper plate alongside chips and bread-and-butter pickles.
