It's fascinating to read over posts from 5 years ago and
feel like they are still somewhat relevant.
At least to me. As any writer
knows, even before the creative process of crafting prose and lyrical
sentences, the act of writing is a way of thinking and clarifying, making sense
of thoughts and experiences. In the case
of this online journal, I get to see myself over time, and see a shape, a
definition of self that wouldn't be clear any other way. I can have a dialogue with myself, confirming
what I was, reviewing what I am, creating a self out of chaos. And, lord, what a lot of chaos there is.
The current chaos really isn't that awful in
perspective. I'm trying to sell my
house, and things aren't going super smoothly.
It's been on the market for over six months now, and I'm fed up. I have things to do, places to be, people to
see, and a need for liquid assets! I had
a buyer at one point, but that person backed out, leaving a puddle of
disgruntlement in her wake.
Lemons and lemonade.
So I am still in this place.
While I am here, I will try to make the most of it. Hence, the Great Lobster Roll Quest. Of course.
What else do you do when you're in Connecticut
and you're staring at yet another year wrapping around the corner, and you
haven't moved yet? Take advantage of
local food!
So, Connecticut
is home of the hot lobster roll. This
should include a toasted bun, copious hot lobster meat, freshly picked,
drizzled with butter. That's pretty much
it. It shouldn't be that hard,
right? I mean, how could you make it
worse?
Ah-hah. Firstly, you could
use frozen lobster meat and then microwave or reboil it. Secondly, you might not properly toast your
buns. Not toasting the bread at all
would be a serious mistake. Thirdly, and
this is a matter of opinion, you put stuff on top of the buttered lobster meat,
like chives or something. There are a
few other miscreant things you could do to sully the pristine hot lobster roll
concept, including wrapping the lobster roll in foil to be sold at concession
stands. I applaud the idea as a good,
capitalist, savvy marketing, business move, but the gastronomic result is
decidedly subpar.
In any case, with this first re-inaugural Toe in the Water
blogpost, I begin the Great Lobster Roll Quest, with a somewhat limited scope.
We're sticking to the Connecticut
shoreline, north of New Haven up to
the Rhode Island border.
I was pretty psyched when I came up with the idea. (And also inanely pleased with myself for
circumventing an arduous, downward-spiraling self-pity party when my house did
not sell.) So, the evening I came up
with this, I took myself over to the closest lobster shack-y place I could
find, Johnny Ad's in Old Saybrook, right
on Route 1.
Johnny Ad's is a no-frills kind of place. Nautical grey siding, indoor and outdoor
seating, laminate tables, vinyl cushioned seats on the inside, picnic tables
out the outside. It's informal. The service is simple and easy: walk inside
to what is essentially an indoor order-taking walk-up window counter. Scan the menus posted on the wall, go to the
register to order and pay. Take your
number, wait for your order to come up. I've
always thought of it as a summer place, but it turns out, it's open
year-round. They have many other
wonderful things to eat besides lobster rolls, but my mission requires
single-mindedness.
The lobster roll
For $16.95, you get a hot buttered lobster roll with a side cup
of coleslaw, and a lemon wedge. The
lobster roll was hot. It was
buttery. The bun was a typical top-loader
(also known as a New England style roll, a square-ish piece of white bread as
opposed to the American Style, or side-loader, with rounded ends - O Wikipedia,
love of my life, I am proud to be a contributor.) The bun was toasted to perfection, slightly
greasy, but not toasted with butter all over it. The lobster meat was really, really hot. I was so excited about embarking on my quest,
I didn't really think about what the meat was, and I chowed down with relish (figuratively).
In retrospect, I believe the meat was really hot because it
had been microwaved. This is something I
can't confirm, but perhaps as the quest goes on I'll get a better sense for
what is microwaved lobster meat and what isn't.
What I did note was that the meat seemed to be all claw meat. Some of it was rather spongy. It was still tasty, but the bun could have
taken a little more meat. The quantity
of butter was excellent.
General review: In the dead of winter, I would eat their
lobster roll to quench a craving. It may
require a mid or late summer visit to get a really good sense of just how good
Johnny Ad's hot lobster roll truly is.
Fun lobster fact of the day: Lobsters have blue-tinted blood
on account of being copper-rich.
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