Idle Minutes

New England is synonymous with Lobster. Thus, when traveling to New England, particularly the Maine coast, one must partake of lobster in some form or another in order to make the trip complete.

I did so three different ways. The first of which was the “lobsta roll”. Never having heard of such, I was intrigued and could not resist trying one.

By the way, lobsta and lobstah are two ways to spell the local pronunciation of lobster. Some of the advertising and signage even spells it that way. I suspect because they realize they have enhanced the word with their own regional dialect and know that we visitors find it amusing. More power to ‘em if it sells more lobsta!

In Portland there is a lovely waterfront and we found ourselves at the Portland Lobster Company for our first dinner of the trip. It’s a laid back dockside restaurant. If you click the link above, you will see in the photo precisely the position where I sat and ate at the dockside bar overlooking the water.

What I have sketched is the infamous Lobsta Roll, typical of every coastal restaurant we visited in Maine.

• Take your garden variety Kroger brand large hot dog bun, lightly toasted…
• Add mayo, lettuce and buttered lobsta. (I would like to note that the Portland Lobster Company specifically states on their menu that the lobsta meat is “Fresh picked meat from a one pound lobster”. I suppose there is something special about it being a one pound lobster, though I can’t imagine what. But hey, I’m from Georgia. What the hell do I know?)
• Add to this a pile of french fries, a tiny cup of very tasty cole slaw, a lemon wedge and a spare cup of mayo…
• Place it all in a little stiff paper “basket” with the lobsta roll in its own little stiff paper wrapper to capture drips while eating.
• Price this at $16.99 (which in my book is seventeen friggin dollars!) and you have the most expensive meal you can eat from a stiff paper basket.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. A man's gotta make a livin'. So I don't fault anybody for the price. Lobsta stuff is expensive. And to their credit, it's a lot less expensive in Maine than where I live here in the deep South, and much fresher. A lobsta roll can not be found in the Deep South because:

• It wouldn’t be fresh…
• It would cost $35!

So there you have it, my first meal in Maine.

I might add that just prior to the $17 lobsta roll I had a cup of lobsta bisque at $7.99 (eight friggin dollars in my book!) which did not fill me up. Thus the lobsta roll was a necessary addition for a weary and hungry traveler. I also had very good iced tea which I think was $2.

For those of you keeping score, that totals up to $27 for my first Maine meal and it was all served on stiff paper with plastic forks and those little napkins that are more akin to toilet paper than napkins. And of course you pick it all up yourself at the “pick-up window” when they set off your little hand held buzzer which is of course a molded red plastic lobster, I mean lobsta, that buzzes and flashes.

The tea refills were free though. I refilled often. It made me feel like I was getting a real value for my money.

I’m not complaining here. The food was very, very good and tasty. The cost was just a big surprise that’s all. Go to Maine prepared to spend money on food. LOTS of money.

Of note here is that my dear wife ate dinner as well. So, add in her $22 total (she had clam chowder and fish and chips, thus saving $5) and you have dinner for two totaling $49 and there was no alcohol purchased. We seriously considered alcohol after realizing what we just spent on dinner.

It was a chilling experience for I feared by the look in my wife’s eyes that we may well be eating at McDonald’s the rest of the trip. Clever cajoling and encouragement to go shopping eased the pain for her though and we dined Maine style for the rest of our adventures throughout the Maine coast. What else can you do eh? It’s a vacation. Gotta enjoy it.

On a Side Note

It came to mind that I need to introduce a new dining sensation here in the Deep South…the Catfish Roll.

Let’s see…the menu can read…

“Catfish meat picked from a fresh 35lb. catfish caught in the cold, deep waters at the foot of the dam on Lake Sidney Lanier.”

A catfish is about as ugly as a lobster so it might just work. I wouldn’t get away with a $17 price tag though. $5.99 maybe…hmmm.

More tomorrow…