Rich lobster comes at a poor man's price

Our Sunday dinner of three Maine lobsters.

The Hackensack ShopRite flier featured fresh live lobster for $4.99 a pound, starting this past Sunday, but first, I needed to pick up a few things at the nearby H Mart in Little Ferry.

As I walked past the Korean supermarket's fish counter on Sunday, I saw a large tank filled with dark-ocean-green lobsters. 

I asked an employee behind the counter, and he said they were $4.49 a pound and from Maine.

I bought three lobsters, weighing a total of 4.18 pounds.

At H Mart, lobsters were taken from a tank and displayed for customers.

On Friday afternoon, I had stopped at Costco for limes and picked up a few dozen wild-caught Littleneck Clams at $3.49 a pound.

With my wife and mother-in-law away visiting relatives, I shared the clams and three lobsters with my teenage son. 

When we finished, we both had one word to describe the meal: Magnifico.

The clams went on a stove-top grill until they popped open.

I cooked the lobsters in a large covered turkey roaster.

We ate the clams first, dipping them into a mixture of extra-virgin olive oil, lime juice, fresh chopped oregano from the garden and garlic powder.

Then, we placed a platter with the lobsters between us and took turns using the one shell cracker we have.

The lobster was perfect dipped into an extra-virgin olive oil mixture.

We'd twist off the tails and I'd get up to cut through the tough underside membrane with a chef's knife, allowing all of the luscious meat to be removed easily.

I cooked the lobsters for about 10 minutes, until they turned red. The claws snapped under the metal cracker, releasing the melt-in-your mouth meat.

One of the lobster tails swims in the crustacean's juices.

On the grill, salty water in the clams boiled before they popped open.

This is how we shared three lobsters: two tails and three claws for me, and one tail, three claws and all of the legs from two lobsters for him.

The rich-tasting tail and claw meat was juicy and tender -- one of my favorite taste sensations.

We didn't have corn or small red potatoes, but that didn't matter.

My son ate white rice and dipped his lobster meat in melted butter. I was happy with just the seafood, a glass of wine and seltzer.

After the meal, I had some fruit salad, and even later, I made a salad of garden lettuce and cucumbers with those incomparable Campari tomatoes.
 

Luke's Lobster in Manhattan

Image by amg2000 via Flickr

We took a break from Thanksgiving leftovers yesterday and drove into the city for some terrific lobster rolls at Luke's Lobster in the East Village.

Luke's says it has the best value in lobster rolls in Manhattan, thanks to a direct supply of crustaceans from the owner's father, a lobster man in Maine.

We tried the regular lobster roll ($14), which is 4 ounces of meat on a hot dog roll. For $2 more, you get a bag of great chips, a Maine root drink and a pickle. This was tender, moist lobster, but I was so hungry, it was gone in a couple of gobbles. And I wondered if  I could have gotten them to warm up the lobster, which had been removed from its shell and refrigerated.

We also tried a couple of soups -- lobster bisque ($7.50) and crab chowder with sweet potato ($5.50), and both were delicious.

Of course, we spent about $75 for three and the ambiance was a cramped storefront with counter seating for eight and plastic utensils. We were served from behind the counter and when I asked if I could use the bathroom, I was told there is none.

When I got hungry last night, I assembled two simple, soft turkey tacos at home.

 Luke's Lobster, 93 E. 7th St., Manhattan; 212-387-8487

www.lukeslobster.com