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.

This Heineken Ad has some advice for squeamish Brits who feel bad about the idea of killing a lobster: pretend you have been cuckolded by this lobster. Very “continental”.

Via Mr. Jerkface, we find this odd diagram for lobster-based self-defense (tellingly, a key component seems to be beer):

Probably best to not tell PETA about this one.

So, among our many schemes, today we’re thinking of becoming the I Can Haz Cheezburger of crustaceans.  Cuddly baby animals drive traffic, yo!   Is there an LOLcat equivalent underwater?  We shall find out!

Today’s cute lobster pic comes via the similarly named Rock Blogster (the blog of the National Lobster Hatchery in Padstow, Cornwall, UK):

I love you, The Onion.

The Associated Press reports that Maine lobstermen caught a record number of lobsters last year — and as a result, prices are dropping:

The Department of Marine Resources announced that lobstermen caught 75.6 million pounds last year, up 8 percent from 2008. But the value of the catch fell $23 million, to $221.7 million. … That’s $96 million less than its peak value in 2005. … Lobstermen last year got an average of $2.93 a pound, roughly the same price they were getting in 1998. They averaged $3.50 a pound in 2008 and $4.39 a pound in 2007.

CNN has a short video interview with a Florida lobsterman about the work he does and the state of the industry: