You may think eating lobster in The Hamptons is all glitzy, fancy pants, gilded, fabulous and over-priced. It’s only a little bit like that. And at Multi Aquaculture Fish Farms, it’s not like that at all. It’s more like a David Lynch movie.

Located in Amagansett on Cranberry Hole Road, this place is not easy to find, and is a bit confusing when you do.

The branding’s a little unclear.

And there are things like disco balls.

But, they sell the delicious foods.

And amuse with hilarious art (there’s a continuing woman-on-lobster-theme).

There are herrings and chickens too.

The chickens donated their fresh eggs to our breakfast.

When you get tired of lobster art and getting splinters, you can always go classy and eat somewhere like Spinnakers in Sag Harbor.

YUM.

they use mayo.

Go lobsterHampton!

Complete with “ayups”. This is authentic, folks.

We did not know the trick about holding the lobster by its antenna to see if it is done. Good learnings.

Are you aware of the lobster race? It’s a phenomenon. It’s taking the country by storm. Bar Harbor does it, you can read about it in a little periodical called The New York Times.

And this town I-can’t-find-the-name-of does it too, and they have proof:

Why would someone race a lobster? Why, because “It’s less crowded than Belmont, and it’s hilarious.”

If you’re anywhere near Aiken, South Carolina on May 7th, I know what you’ll be up to. Yep, a lobster race.

In related news, I spent the morning racing lobster cookies to my mouth.

we all won.

We don’t know what to say!

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thanks, Susan.

A dear friend sent over a link to a rather dramatic interpretation of Irving Penn’s lobster and squid photography this morning, which claims that his succulent imagery is downright erotic.

I’m not sure I’d go that far, but it sure is purdy. And the man seems to have a sense of humor with a carving fork.

Do want to eat.

After my morning image satiation, I did what I do most days, and looked for wedding dresses online. I think we have a winner.

At first I thought this was just an amusing get-up, but it has quite the history!

The 1937 Lobster Dress was a simple white silk evening dress with a crimson waistband featuring a large lobster painted (by Dali) onto the skirt. From 1934, Dali had started incorporating lobsters into his work, including New York Dream-Man Finds Lobster in Place of Phone shown in the magazine American Weekly in 1935, and the mixed-media Lobster Telephone (1936). His design for Schiaparelli was interpreted into a fabric print by the leading silk designer Sache. It was famously worn by Wallis Simpson in a series of photographs by Cecil Beaton taken at the Château de Candé shortly before her marriage to Edward VIII.

Sigh. Probably not affordable.

Lobster head adornments have hit the real live fashion magazines.

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On second thought, maybe the lobster hat was in the magazine first, and Gaga saw it and had to have it… this is a chicken and egg situation.

Saturday night was a scene of the age old lobster roll debate: mayo or butter? I’m strictly butter (why gild the lily)? Also I’m from Connecticut.

David’s a mayo guy.

The lobsters themselves had no opinion. All EIGHT of them. Shucking eight lobsters when you need to shower and your guests are knocking on the door and you can’t find the cracker can be a little stressful. And you might hurt yourself just a little bit.

So for the record, I like my lobsters straight out of the shell. But if I must shuck, I like butter.

Here it is, the result of our toil. Beautiful, naked lobster meat, just waiting for a drizzle of warm butter and a toasted hotdog roll.

There were a few side dishes. This one featured a lobster, albeit differently.

This is a bean salad. Black beans, cilantro, celery, red onions, rice vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

We followed Jasper White’s recipe for the mayo batch. David added curry and celery.

Ingredients

Three 1 1/2-pound lobsters
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon minced tarragon
1 medium cucumber–peeled, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch dice
Tabasco
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 medium scallions, thinly sliced
6 hot-dog buns

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Plunge the lobsters in, head first, and cook until bright red all over, about 12 minutes. Transfer the lobsters to a bowl.
Crack the lobster claws and knuckles and remove the meat. Twist the tails from the bodies and slit the undersides lengthwise with scissors. Remove the meat and discard the black intestinal vein that runs along the tail. Cut the lobster into 1/2-inch pieces.

In a large bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard and tarragon. Fold in the lobster meat and cucumber and season with Tabasco, salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate the lobster salad for at least 30 minutes. Just before serving, mix in the scallions. Generously fill each hot-dog bun with lobster salad and serve.

Turns out, lobster rolls are good for breakfast, too.

mmmmm.

To assuage my grief from having tossed the lobster bodies aside when making the rolls, we brewed up a nice lobster stock.

Not sure what to do with it quite yet, but it is cool looking at this stage.

Our guests were split down the middle on butter/mayo. Turns out, lobster is delicious most ways.

For those of you who like butter and are in Connecticut, try Abbott’s or The Place for your rolls.

Cheers!

Oh, excitement is now. We’re having a lobster roll festival this evening, and we shall attempt to make the rolls two ways: one recipe is with butter, and one is with mayo.  For now, the kitchen table awaits. The lobsters are currently being overshadowed by the lemons and the mozzarella, but trust us, they will be the main event.

We ended up going to Fairway for the lobsters, as time was tight and we needed to morning-shop. We were hoping to make a long overdue trip to Red Hook Lobster Pound. Next time!

Lobsters do bring everyone together; there was a small crowd around us as our lobsters were plucked from their tank, and our checkout lady was very chatty and impressed by our haul. And she had the Windex close at hand for the cleanup.

Off to make tomalley toast… more to come.

Scanning around on the Internets, you can find some fun lobster-related stuff; posters, pictures, clothes, etc.. And so we’ve wrangled together some of our favorites and are proud to announce the birth of You Rock, Lobster!, The Store ™, where you can get stuff like a reproduction of this Andy Warhol painting:

It’s like he’s holding out his claws to embrace you! In our experience, lobsters often do that. And here are some other vintage lobsters we found while trolling around:

Yeah, I ate lobster this week. And gumbo with lobster. And FRIED CLAMS FROM HEAVEN. A perfectly fried, perfectly fresh clam belly with tartar sauce come very close to blowing my favorite crustacean out of the water. I took pictures to show you but clams are ugly.

One of the very important questions raised over our eatings this week: How does one stuff a lobster? Do you very carefully extract the meat and then put it back together? Or do you never cook it to begin with? Help me, reader!

I know you can do it, because here one is:

Very old taxidermied stuffed lobster for sale – $200 (mattapoisett ma)

Very old taxidermy stuffed lobster. Hand painted. Hung in McGrath’s Restaurant of Plymouth for many years. Attached to wood with rope around border. Dimensions: 2′-3″ X 3′-5″. In decent condition. However could use a little touch up paint and cleaning. Right tip front of leg is missing and last leg tip on right hand side is missing. Have additional pics available upon request.

Lobster itself appears to be 12-18 lbs. Price is negotiable!

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Also, there was a scientific study a long time ago, finding that lobsters are like people (and you can dress them up as such).

Have just a fantastic Monday.