The first day of the 60th Annual Maine Lobster Festival was a rousing success. Today was Home Town Day at the festival where everyone, not just us locals, get in for free. I arrived at 11:30 when the lobster serving tent had already been open for 30 minutes and there was already a very long line. So I just walked around taking photos of all the food and people.
Everyone seemed to be having a great time, although many people were walking around in that daze that happens when you go to a crowded festival. So much is going on around you, and there are so many bright colors and loud sounds, that it kind of zones you out a bit. Mostly everyone was focused on getting themselves a couple of Lobstahs.
Prices are a bit higher than 60 years ago at the first Maine Lobster Festival. Back in 1947 it was 41.00 for all the lobsters you could eat. Now it's a tad higher. A single lobster dinner with corn and coleslaw runs $15.00, a double is $25.00, and a triple, the best deal, is $35.00. Considering that the typical single lobster dinner here in Maine is around $20-22 these aren't bad prices. Of course with soft-shell lobsters running $6.00 a pound you can get the best deal by making them at home. But then you don't have the fun of being a total crustaceanavore in public with all the other like minded folks.
A photo essay of a day at the festival after the jump.
Today kicks off the start of the 60th Annual Maine Lobster Festival. The festival, based in Rockland Maine takes place for five day in the beginning of every August. This year it runs from August 1st - 5th, 2007. It's been shown on the Good Morning America, the Food Network and other channels many times and is a celebration of all things lobster and Maine. people come from all over for the festival, and I do mean all over. In the parking lots you will see license plates from states as far away as Washington and Alaska, as well as all parts of Canada. In the past I have even run into people visiting from England, Sweden, Japan, and more.
During the time between now and Sunday evening I will cover as much as I can of all the weird, whacky, and food related events that take place, including the children's lobster eating contest, the children's codfish carry, the "Great International William Atwood Lobster Crate Race", the Sea Goddess contest, the "Real Maine Man" cooking contest, the Maine Seafood Cooking contest (which my friend Risa Small has won twice), the blindfold rowboat race, the little lobster diaper derby (lobsters and diapers together sounds downright strange), and all the festival food.
Retail lobster prices have hit an all time record high of around $15 or more a pound. In Maine, due to a combination of weather, water temperature, and the timing of fishing seasons have all come together to make it all but impossible for lobster men to fish for the lobsters. The high winds make it difficult to work the waters, and the cold water temperatures make the lobsters less hungry. This means that the lobsters don't go into the traps. Now, if the high price per pound was getting back to the lobster men that would be great, but since they are catching hardly any lobsters this translates to an exceptionally hard winter for them financially.
Thankfully now that spring is here and warmer weather is around the corner, the lobster catch should improve. The warmer water will make the lobsters come out of their winter slump and they develop an appetite. Also the Canadian lobster season is about to open which means more lobster will be available, helping to lower prices.
More than six months ago, Whole Foods decided to ban the sale of live lobsters and soft shelled crabs in their stores because they determined that the practice was inhumane. The sea creatures, in Whole Foods' study, were not "treated with respect and compassion" on their journey from sea to market and until that issue could be resolved, no lobsters were to be put into the sale tanks in the fish department.
Since the ban was enacted, the natural foods store has not found any companies that meet its standards for the human treatment of lobsters. Until now, that is. Whole Foods is opening their first market in Maine next week and the Portland store will be stocking live lobsters. They have contracted with the Little Bay Lobster Co., a New Hampshire-based company, which will keep lobsters in private compartments for transport after catching them to reduce their stress.
Stocking live lobsters doesn't mean that they will be selling live lobsters, though. In the stores, an employee will use a "110-volt shock [to kill them and] to spare them the agony of being boiled alive in a pot of water."
Maine's lobster fishermen aren't thrilled with this plan. First, they are offended that a company that so heavily promotes its support for local farmers and fishermen would choose an out-of-state company when there are so many local ones to choose from. Second, the fishermen say that "they tell us we're doing everything wrong, obviously it doesn't sit very well with us," noting that using "a lobster electric chair" to kill the lobster sounds like a gimmick that won't impress consumers. Especially not in a state that loves its lobsters.
Funny post over at Boston.com's Dig blog. They list a number of items that you can get with $50, including the season two box set of Grey's Anatomy, a car model, and an entire dinner at one of Boston's finest restaurants. Or, you could get one omelet.
That's what they're offering for brunch at Tremont 647 in Boston. And before you say, "$50 for, what, a ham and cheese omelet?!", note that it is stuffed with foie gras, lobster, shrimp and steak (gah - except for the steak and eggs it sounds like my meal in hell).
I've often wondered what I would eat if I was ridiculously wealthy. Would I start eating at the finest restaurants all the time? Would I eat only the best steaks? Would I have a personal chef? Would I spend money on $50 omelets and other expensive foods we always here about, like $100 hamburgers and $10,000 bottles of champagne? If I was ridiculously rich? Yeah, probably.
I love lobster. I'm not unusual in this and many others do as well, but not everyone. I think that it is a love/hate food and you immediately know which side of the fence you are on. Last month I was in mid-coast Maine on vacation. I love the area, visit there several times a year, and am planning on moving there in the next few years. Maine is known for lobster, so of course that's what we had to have for dinner.
I went to my favorite lobster purveyor, Jeff of the Oyster River Lobster Company, to pick up a half dozen or so for dinner for me and my guest. As I was grubbing around in the tank helping myself to the big bugs I saw a flash of brilliant blue. Jeff's son, Josh, ran over to help me out and brought out a living jewel, Mr. Blu Genes (see pic). It was an unusual and very rare blue lobster that they were keeping as a mascot. Blue lobsters are found only once in a blue moon, actually the odds are even greater than that. Only one in 3-4 million lobsters are blue, they are even more rare than calico lobsters, but not as rare as a live red/orange lobster, the albino, yellow or the elusive two-tone lobster. My buddy and I played around with the cute little guy for awhile, posing and taking pics, before returning him to his tank.
Then we headed back home with his cousins for a feast of steamed, grilled, caked and chowdered crustaceans to carry us over for a day or two. If you would like to check out some more cool lobster pics you can always go to the U of Maine lobster of the month page for more tasty looking, interesting and weird, deep sea creepy crawlies.
When is a lobster not a lobster? When it's actually a langostino. And what's a langostino? Well sometimes is is a lobster (in Europe), sometimes it's a prawn (in Spain), and sometimes it's a crab.
And such is the reason why the people in Maine are a little more than angy that restaurants are selling langostinos as "lobsters." Senator Olympia Snowe from Maine wants the FDA to ban restaurants from calling langostinos on the menu, "lobster." According to Kristen Millar of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council, serving langostino as lobster is an "insult to Maine and to the lobster industry."
It is extremely unlikely that you could out-eat world champion competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi, but what if you had three friends on your team? As it turns out, 4:1 are not good enough odds to take on the champ. In the World Lobster Roll Eating Challenge in Boston, a team of four young Massachusetts residents (about 19 years old or so) tried, collectively, to eat more than Kobayashi. Even with $10,000 prize money as an incentive, the four could only put away 25 rolls to Kobayashi's 41.Kobayashi, who has been called the Lance Armstrong of the competitive eating world, took home the prize money instead of the local team.
As with many things that Kobayashi eats, this number is the new world record for lobster-roll eating. He only tasted his first lobster roll the night before the competition and said that he thought he could beat his record in the future, now that he was more familiar with the food.
Last week, I posted about the problems that heightened airline security measures were causing for those trying to carry wine with them on their flights. The gel packs often used to keep live lobsters cool during their travels are also a problem. To get around this, Clearwater Seafoods in Nova Scotia, Canada, has replaced their usual gel packs with bags of frozen vegetables like peas, carrots and corn, according to a recent CBC story. One Clearwater manager told the CBC that the veggies actually stay colder for longer than the gel packs.
A restaurant cooking your catch is nothing new, but a recent CBS report points out a Japanese restaurant called Zauo where patrons must nab their fish from a large pool before it is sent to the kitchen. The lobster tank debate aside, I have to wonder how tender a fish caught this way (stressed after being chased by a novice angler) would be. I've also heard that sushi-grade fish should be rested after being caught, so that the muscles can relax. I could be wrong about that, though. The Fark page where I found this article also has some discussion about freezing fish before serving it raw, which some states require. Also, one poster said that since most fish in the tank are hard to land, diners are often forced to settle on a more expensive but easier to catch lobster. Bear in mind that the text of the article is transcribed from a television segment, so it reads a strangely.
A lobsterman in Maine caught a very rare two-tone lobster this week. The little critter was split right down the middle, with one half a typical greenish color and the other half a bright red tone. The odds of finding such a lobster are between 1 in 50 million and 1 in 100 million. The reason that such an unusual color scheme is even possible is that each side of a lobster actually develops independently; in this case, one side simply lacked the blue pigment that would have darkened the red side.
The lobsterman, Alan Robinson, donated the lobster to the Mount Desert Oceanarium in Maine, which has only had 3 two-tone lobsters in its 35 year existence.
Whole Foods markets will no longer sell live lobsters and soft-shelled crabs on the grounds that it is an inhumane practice. The company spent months studying the conditions that lobsters experienced en route from the sea to the shopper. They tried to make the lobsters as comfortable as possible, but ultimately concluded that "they could not ensure the creatures [were] treated with respect and compassion."
Whole Foods pointed to a European study that said lobsters can feel pain like humans and animals, but the scientific community is divided over to what degree a lobster's fairly primitive nervous systems actually feel.
The lobster industry isn't concerned with this decision. 25% of all lobsters are sold live and they feel strongly that consumers who want live lobsters will still seek them out.
PETA and other animal rights groups are thrilled with the decision, but seem to have missed the fact that the market will still carry frozen raw and cooked lobster products. The lobsters are still being killed, but they won't be boiled by Whole Foods shoppers.
Anyone been to Kowloon, America's Premier Asian Dining Complex? Apparently they offer the 'finest Cantonese, Szechuan, Sushi, Polynesian and Thai' cuisines served in a variety of distinctive dining rooms and lounges.
They are hosting Lobster Fest 2006 a festival that will feature twin lobsters prepared twelve different ways. Lobster Fest 2006 run until the end of August. The dishes will be
Boiled Twin Lobsters
Lobster Sweet Chili
Lobsters Steamed in Scallion & Ginger
Lobster Chinese Style
Lobster Shanghai Stir Fry
Lobster with a Spicy Tomato Sauce
Lobster with a Spicy Garlic Sauce
Lobster Szechuan Style
Lobster Sesame Garlic
Lobster with Black Bean Sauce
Lobster Thai Style (available during Thai Grille hours)
Eddie Andleman Style w/Black Bean Sauce, Onions & Peapods
Where is this culinary mecca? 948 Broadway (Rt. 1 North) Saugus, MA 01906.
I mentioned a new gadget the other day (the Crustastun) that offers a more humane method of killing lobsters prior to eating them. Now I can't recall ever having brought a lobster for home cooking but I may now be tempted as the Independent has, coincidentally, published three lobster based recipes -
Lobster bonne femme - a French soup: sweet lobster meat is warmed through in a sauce comprising young leeks, chunky potato pieces and thyme.
Lobster curry - with tamarind, roasted coconut, ginger and coriander
Lobster Salad - lobster, peas, shaved fennel and dill
Retail lobster prices have hit an 
More than six months ago, Whole Foods decided to 
Funny post over at Boston.com's 
I love lobster. I'm not unusual in this and many others do as well, but not everyone. I think that it is a love/hate food and you immediately know which side of the fence you are on. Last month I was in mid-coast Maine on vacation. I love the area, visit there several times a year, and am planning on moving there in the next few years. Maine is known for lobster, so of course that's what we had to have for dinner. 
When is a lobster not a lobster? When it's actually a langostino. And what's a langostino? Well sometimes is is a lobster (in Europe), sometimes it's a prawn (in Spain), and sometimes it's a crab.
It is extremely unlikely that you could out-eat world champion competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi, but what if you had three friends on your team? As it turns out, 4:1 are not good enough odds to take on the champ. In the 
Last week, I 
A restaurant cooking your catch is nothing new, but a recent 
A lobsterman in Maine caught a very 
Anyone been to 
Plenty happening across the blogosphere in regards to wine news and comments - 
I mentioned a new gadget the other day (the 
DIY Foods: Making homemade sausage
Cakes so amazing they'd be hard to cut into
Fruit juice: An invitation to diabetes?
