The Question Isn't Do Lobsters Feel Pain... It's Do You Care?

Okay so Dana's hands really haven't been replaced by claws, he's just giving me the bird with a meaty lobster appendage, but you get the point. When you live in a place like Boston where the winters are long and the summers far too fleeting, that first taste of lobster is a coveted experience that embodies the very essence of the season and is a little like bottled sunshine.

Stuffies... They're Not Just for Peter Griffin

I know that living on the frosty shores of the Atlantic we can pretty much eat lobster year round (although it's freshest in summer when warmer water temps bring lobsters out of hibernation and closer to the water surface to facilitate trapping), but nothing really beats that fist sun kissed summer lobster roll accompanied by a plate of fried clams and a steamy cup of creamy chowder procured at your favorite fried seafood joint. One bite conjures up happy memories of blissful days spent at the beach when the afternoon light would get syrupy as the day stretched into evening and your hair was a tangle of stiff, salty strands. Yum…

Possibly the Best Fried Clams on Earth

I have been very lucky to always live near the beach. Growing up my grandparents split their time between Jamestown, R.I. before it was the hoity toity destination it is now and a sleepy little beach community called Ocean Park, M.E. We don't brag about it but O.P. is tucked between Old Orchard Beach and Saco (although I sometimes lie and say it's between Scarborough and Saco to those who are ignorant of the southern Seacoast geography) and while OOB has a reputation for being honky tonk and tacky, it is home to one of the most pristine stretches of shoreline in New England.

A Bad Photo of a Great Peekytoe Crab Cake at Walter's

A dry town with not much more than a seasonal library, a soda fountain that slings burgers and lime rickeys, a penny candy and variety shop, a "grocery store" that makes proper 1/4 lb. lobster rolls (not too much mayo and no unnecessary accoutrements) for a paltry $10 and a rec hall with Saturday night dances for the kids - this is the type of place where everything shuts down on Sunday during church services. Oh yeah, the multi denominational church that is only open during summer and where every week they welcome a visiting minister, priest, rabbi or Imam. It’s an old town kind of place where people greet each other warmly and porch lights are out by 10pm.

A Huot's Lazyman Lobster

At the end of every street along this stretch of coast you will find a beautiful boardwalk and not a whole lot else. As a kid who loved the beach – this was pretty much the best place ever. There was never more to think about than which bathing suit I was going to wear and what kind of sandwich I might have for lunch. Rainy days were like a curse from God as was sitting in Sunday school when it was particularly hot out, but otherwise, it was beach, sand, sun and the occasional lobster roll.

The Scene at Pine Point

My grandparents no longer live in the house in Ocean Park and I am lucky enough to have responsibility for caring for the property and renting it out in the summer which affords me the opportunity to spend some time there. I routinely gorge myself on lobster while I’m up North – quite literally. On my first trip this season I consumed four lobster rolls and a lazy man over three days. You do the math.

Lobster Cod Brulee at Walter's

Griddled local cod with a golden brulee of Maine lobster aioli,

grilled ramps and corn over roasted Japanese sweet potatoes

I should mention where we eat when we're there. Our favorite is a little family owned spot in Camp Ellis called Huot's where the food is consistently tasty and the service is almost ironically friendly. I love their haddock chowder as it's not overly thick but a nice medium consistency and it's overflowing with fish. Fried Clams are battered with a corn meal concoction that makes them amazingly crunchy and delicious. Their lobster rolls come on a toasted hotdog bun with a healthy portion of meat drenched in butter with mayo on the side.

Beachy Shadows

We're also fans of Bailey's Lobster Pound in Pine Point which has $10 rolls overflowing with lobster meat and lots of other options like crab claws, chowder, whole lobsters and meat. I will say that I still favor the lobster rolls at the Ocean Park Grocery Store (not much more than a deli counter and a few coolers of soda for beach goers) as they pack 1/4 pound of meat into a hotdog roll so the lobster to bread ratio is pretty amazing.

The Glow at Walter's

On this trip, we had a wonderful meal at Walter's Cafe on Exchange Street in Portland. They do some creative takes on standard seafood but not overly creative so as to be distracting. It's a lovely little place that's reasonably priced and has some good options if you're not into creatures from the sea...

Walter's AMAZING Caribasian Mango Shrimp Ceviche

As I started uploading the photos for this post, I remembered the David Foster Wallace article Consider the Lobster, that the writer tackled for Gourmet many years ago. What began as a study of the Maine Lobster Festival up on the Northern Seacoast, became a treatise on wether or not lobsters feel pain and if eating them is essentially immoral. It’s an interesting question but one I guess I choose to suppress when I dive into that succulent pink flesh all summer long. It’s much more convenient this way but I am a great one for suppressing the inconvenient facts or questions in life.

Thai Curry Spaghetti And Meatballs

The Wallace article raises a lot of interesting questions but as I reread it, I began to realize that while the question of whether or not lobsters feel pain, while metaphysically fascinating, is really a question of moral candor. Even if you believe that lobsters probably do feel pain and that all the thrashing around and the high pitched whines when you plop them into boiling water is demonstrative of a creature experiencing a rather painful death… and regardless of whether or not you really think they’re fully aware of this pain or that the whole death by scalding hot tub thing is a form of torture is – the real question is – how much do you care?

A Tarte Mixed Berry Crisp

If I’m being honest (and the article has lots of great factoids and research on this topic) then I guess I do think the poor little bottom feeders die a very painful death. But it’s a bit like getting your ears pierced or going on a rollercoaster – the pain or fear you feel is so very brief that you get over it very quickly. I may ponder what the lobster is going through as I watch it turn red and open and close its claws as the steamy water boils around it – but it’s very easy for me to suspend that thought as I crack the exoskeleton with my nut cracker and dive in to the buttery meat. It’s over fast and I guess it just doesn’t bother me that much… or if it does, it’s only for a minute.

A Perfect Lunch...

...With an Awesome View

Anyway, Wallace provides some great commentary on the machine that is tourism...

“I confess that I have never understood why so many people’s idea of a fun vacation is to don flip-flops and sunglasses and crawl through maddening traffic to loud hot crowded tourist venues in order to sample a “local flavor” that is by definition ruined by the presence of tourists. This may (as my Festival companions keep pointing out) all be a matter of personality and hardwired taste: The fact that I just do not like tourist venues means that I’ll never understand their appeal and so am probably not the one to talk about it (the supposed appeal)…. As a tourist, you become economically significant but existentially loathsome, an insect on a dead thing."

Maceo Enjoying the Way Life Should Be

You can check out the actual Gourmet article or this PDF reprint which I found much easier to read as all the footnotes weren't crowded onto a few pages but fell below the actual text they were intended to annotate. It's also completely ridiculous of me to say, but I found the comments on the Gourmet site a little hard to swallow (pun completely intended) even though this whole post is essentially one long rambling comment.

Peace

I try to be philosophical and entertain both sides but I also appreciate Wallace's literary skill and approach to his subject matter. I guess I just don't want to hear a bunch of self righteous foodies debate the merits of his arguments or blather on about whether or not it was really a culinary piece. That's just not the point... but who am I to judge?