LOBSTER ROLLS ARE THE NEW CUPCAKES

You're shaking your head, maybe snickering a little but it's true! Think about it. You can hold a cupcake in one hand. The main ingredients remain consistent while the flavorings can vary. Each bite is rewarding and simultaneously sinful. For the cook it is a relatively simple construction with endless possibilities for variety. You can feel guilty and mildly defiant or for those endowed with the princess gene entitled and indulged as you eat it.

Lobster rolls like great cupcakes must be made with the best ingredients. The most important being lobster. Please do not use one of those tired, bewildered crustaceans heaped in the corner of a stale tank at the grocery store. Lobster fresh from the sea, steamed and shelled is the way to go. It takes less than a half hour to cook and shell the meat. Good bread, think croissant, ciabbatta, brioche or go traditional and use a New England hot dog bun is the equivalent of an edible cupcake paper.

Keep it simple and traditional or summon your inner Julia Child as you mix the ingredients for the filling. Indulge yourself and your friends with a treat that is special and simple and always a treat.

(Initial idea for our version of this blog from http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/2010/05/lobster-rolls-are-new-cupcake.html)

Lobster Bisque

From Suzie's Food Blog, lobster blog.

Mac & Cheese

In case you need a recipe for something different than steaming... http://www.zencancook.com/2010/05/lobster-mac-cheese

It’s the Journey, Not the Destination

Maine and Washington are continental bookends. Each hugs its coast with perspicacity and neither allows you to be complacent about its landscape. On clear days in Seattle when Mt Rainier looms or on summer nights when the ferries cross the sound their lights speak of magic rather than direction. It is not unusual on a point A to point B trip to suddenly be astounded by unexpected beauty. Point A to point B trips are the lifeblood of our days. We have to pick up the kids, drop off the laundry, take the dog to the groomer. Rushing up Route 1 in midcoast Maine to run the same errands we experience a series of speed zones: 25 through town, 35 on the edge and 55 in between. There's a stretch of road north of Camden that winds through tall pines where you can catch a glimpse of the occasional house, antique stores are prolific and coveys of summer cottages perch on the hills to claim a sea view, if only, when you step on your tiptoes. Clipping along on a two lane road at 55 (65 with the ten mile unwritten leeway) is almost meditative until the Reduced Speed ahead signs begin to appear. The need to slow down is not immediately apparent. The wind of the road and the tall pines continue. Until you reach Lincolnville Beach a town that consists of a post office, B&B, four or five shops, two lobster shacks and two restaurants. One has a sign that says “best pizza in town”. As the only pizza in town it is an indisputable claim. But it isn't the availability of postage or pizza that makes you want to slow down. It is the open water dotted with pristine lobster boats and the backdrop of Islesboro. It is a postcard moment. A scene stopped in time. Sunrise, high tide or light squall lobster boats have anchored and fished from here for two hundred years. Men and boys have risked their lives for centuries hauling traps. It takes little imagination to feel the timelessness of the spot, the continuity wraps around you like a comforter knit by your grandmother.

Iconic Symbols

Every city has an iconic start to spring. In Chicago it’s opening day for the Cubs or Sox. In Seattle it is when the Azaleas that populate the landscape of the University of Washington explode in pops of pink to the horizon. In Rockland, Main our spring icon is in its second season. You might question the word icon in the context of a two year stint. But our icon has a past. It is Robert Indiana’s EAT sculpture first displayed at the New York’s World Fair in 1964. The art installation was mistaken for a restaurant sign and hundreds of people waited in line for what they believed would be a forthcoming lunch. Fair organizers had the sign removed and returned to Mr. Indiana. It remained in his possession until the spring of 2009 when it was installed on the roof of the Farnsworth Art Museum. Locals have adopted the sign with the same love and seasonal recognition as the annual Christmas tree made from lobster crates and buoys.

Like the tree it invokes celebration, joy and hope. It says Eat life; Eat art; Eat the bounty of the season. Celebrate the lobsters pulled from the sea; the boats on the water; the clambakes on the shore. Eat it or miss out.

A Season Getting Started

In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love, except in Maine.  A normal spring here is heralded by mud and forsythia.  This spring has been different.  Instead of mud, green, ready to mow grass is in abundance.  In Saturday Cove the early spring days have been spent repairing traps, painting buoys and working on our lobster boat the Fisher Girl.

Like any meaningful relationship your boat requires love, attention and respect. Spring is the time to scrape barnacles, paint and polish in preparation for launch and the beginning of the lobster season. Our launch took place last week, a month ahead of schedule.

We look forward to every new season and the surprises it will bring. The things that remain constant are the methods of fishing, our belief in eco friendly harvests, knowing our customers and providing the freshest lobster at the height of its season.

Fast food and harvesting lobster are mutually exclusive. It takes time and expertise to fish for lobster. Early mornings spent at sea baiting and dropping traps followed by pulling up traps dropped earlier become a rhythm, a tango between man and sea. The first trap to bear fruit each season is exhilarating. Hints of clambakes with friends gathered on an open beach spring to mind. That first trap like a spring robin is a harbinger of the promise that the season holds.