Woke up too early

Woke up too early this am, so I went out to look at the river.

Little plants growing on top of the pier in the water.

Savory oatmeal

Finally got around to creating a savory oatmeal dish, and it was pretty good!

The general idea for my dish was loosely based on Asian-style breakfasts which I loved eating when I was a kid.  Back then, we'd sometimes have boiled rice congee and all sorts of pickled vegetables and often, leftovers from the night before.  Sweet, carb- and gluten-loaded breakfast items were pretty rare in my growing up.  It wasn't that we couldn't get them; we just didn't grow up on them and didn't develop a taste for them until much later.  I didn't actually like bagels, muffins, or pizza until I was out of college.  Now I don't eat them much because they don't make me feel that well.

Anyway, these days for health reasons, I generally try to avoid too much simple carbohydrate, so I eat white rice sparingly.  And I'm kind of suspicious of the quality of canned pickled vegetables that you can get at Asian groceries (not to mention, I'm nowhere near close to an Asian grocery).  So, that leads me to a modified Asian breakfast that's kind of what I think of as Ireland meets Taiwan, a sort of Rosie O'Donnell mixed with Lucy Liu, St Patrick's Day celebrated with Chinese New Year.  ....yeah...no.

First, I boiled some steel cut oats:

In the water, I put a fair amount of salt and seasoning in the boiling water (my spices of choice were just a dash of each: coriander, cumin, thyme, basil, chili powder, turmeric, and red pepper) which cooked into the oats.  Cook per oatmeal package directions.

In a pan, carmelize sliced onion, then add vegetables.  I put in mushrooms, greens, and garlic.

Added a couple splashes of soy sauce, a small splash of vinegar, and hot sauce.  Once the vegetables were cooked, I just topped a bowl of the oatmeal with some of the vegetables.

Once you stop thinking your oatmeal has to be sweet, this makes just as much sense as any other food.  The oatmeal tasted a lot like polenta, which was kind of cool.  I could see taking the oatmeal and shaping it into patties to bake or grill and coming up with an oatmeal burger.  Hmm....

Yep, just checked, the oatmeal burger is a thing already.  But the various possibilities are there, just waiting....like taking boiled, seasoned oatmeal that you then shape into patties and fry?  Or if you like it sweet, try this.

Oh.  Yeah.

Edd's Place, the dark horse.

Wow.  This was one amazing lobster roll.  Edd's Place in Westbrook was a complete dark horse in this lobster roll quest.  I went to get my hair cut, and my hair stylist recommended the place (yes, I am telling just about everyone I know about the lobster roll quest.)  (Because going on a mission to eat a lot of lobster rolls all over the north of New Haven Connecticut shoreline is REALLY fun.  And educational. And tasty.) It was on my way between a few activities, so I stopped in around lunchtime.

 

When I first looked at the roll and saw the shredded lettuce, I was kind of aghast.  Uh-oh, I thought, what mischief is afoot here?  Then, I looked, really looked at the enormous chunks of buttered lobster.  Uh-oh, I thought, how am I going to eat that?  The whole thing seemed too big and wide to pick up and put to mouth.  [Somehow, our intrepid lobster roll quester finds a way....]

There's something about really large pieces of lobster meat that is particularly satisfying.  I think it boils down to one major reason - I didn't have to pick the thing myself.  Instead of seeing chopped up prepared product (think tubs of prepared salads at the supermarket) that keeps you removed from thinking about the preparation process, the whole form of the claw reminds you that Someone else did all the hard work of boiling the crustacean, pulling it out, waiting for it to cool, cracking open the shell and pulling out the meat. (Food preparers of the world, thank you.)  Another reason might be that you get a really satisfying mouth feel when biting into a large hunk of succulent flesh, really using your teeth the way nature intended.  You have to eat just lobster first to get into this roll.  Consisting of claw and knuckle meat, biting into this roll was ...well, really, really, really good.

Every single roll I've had, I've discovered something new about the variations on hot lobster rolls.  The cool thing about Edd's was that at the end of the roll, I still had a really large chunk of lobster left that left the meat to bread ratio about the same as at the beginning.  Still really tasty.  The lettuce, I will say, didn't do anything for me one way or the other. I think it was around $16.95 for the regular size.  They offer a large as well for around $20.

What is this lobster pie you speak of?

View from the picnic tables

Edd's Place is right off of Route 1 in Westbrook, and is literally a shack with an enclosed gazebo and picnic tables along the edge of a cove.  Actually, across the water is the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge.  Or rather, one part of it, the Salt Meadow unit.  Which might be one reason these guys were enjoying hanging out down at the bottom of the slope.

So, I am wondering a little bit what all this lobster is doing to my system, and it's reassuring to read that the Gulf of Maine Research Institute reports that:

"Nutrition studies show that 3 1/2 ounces of lobster meat (without the butter) contains only 90 calories, compared to 163 calories for the same amount of chicken and 280 calories for sirloin steak. Lobster also contains omega-3 fatty acids, the "good " cholesterol that seems to reduce hardening of the arteries and decrease the risk of heart attacks."

Lobster is good for you!!  Thank god.

Clinton Lobster Landing vs. Guilford Lobster Pound!

So delicious!  This weekend's lobster rolls were both really great.  It didn't hurt that it was a picture perfect day, Mother's Day no less, with cloudless blue skies, mid-seventies, enough sun to start burning people's bare shoulders lobster red.  Lobster on my mind…

Clinton's Lobster Landing (no website, just a non-informative facebook page) has been open since April, and I didn't know it!  I thought it opened in June, but being antsy, I called them, and it turned out they've been open! Shows what happens when you don't actually call a place and just rely on secondhand Internet reporting.

 At the end of Commerce Street, the famed shack sits in all its swayback glory.  Being a perfect day, it looked perfectly picturesque, with lobster traps sitting on the dock next door.  Due to several years of declining lobsters in Long Island Sound, authorities had banned lobstering for three months last fall, but apparently, a few lobstermen are still able to go out and catch the clawed comestible.  Many places have to get their catch from Maine and Canada, but a few Connecticut gems still bring in local flavor.  Mmm, Long Island sludge-fed lobsters!

 

But what a flavor!  You order at a makeshift counter under a white tent, then go stake out a table and wait until someone brings you your roll wrapped in foil.  No sides, just one delicious lobster roll.  For $16, Clinton Lobster Landing serves up a nicely toasted, foot-long top-loader roll full of fresh, small chunks of lobster and plenty of butter.  Now, if, in your haste to shorten the time between you and your lobster roll, you didn't paid attention to the menu board, you might have been surprised by the slightly sweet tang of a pre-applied touch of lemon juice!  This is a unique roll.  All of the other ones I've had so far give you a slice a lemon on the side, but here, the recipe doesn't allow you to tweak.  I have to say, despite having my libertarian culinary senses slightly offended, I wouldn't say no to another Clinton Lobster Landing lobster roll. 

To the right of the menu is a big vat of melted butter.

We had a mother with us, on Mother's Day, so the party wasn't about to end with one lobster roll.  We rolled on over to Guilford to sample the offerings at the Guilford Lobster Pound, which seemed appropriate to pair with Clinton's as the owners of both restaurants are some of the very few who still catch their own lobster out of Long Island Sound.  The Guilford eatery is located at the end of Whitfield Street in Guilford, with picnic tables on their own beautiful dock facing a lovely view of the Sound.

Stand-up paddleboarder out in the distance.

Here, you get a standard sized hot dog roll full of large chunks of hot buttered lobster, no lemon.  Lemon is on hand should you want to add some, but the roll by itself is $15.  I loved it.  I would've loved to have had another one.  Others in the party voted for Clinton's roll, opining that its lighter feel was nicer.  I can't say I would say no to another Clinton Lobster Landing roll, but Guilford's was pretty great.  The only thing I would change is to get it in a larger size, maybe a footandahalf-long roll...

Want this NOW!

Lobster fact: Lobsters are nocturnal and are able to sense their prey in the dark via sensors on their hairy legs.  What do your hairy legs do for you?

Lobster Roll: Captain Scott's and Abbott's!

So I was going to be in the area near New London for a climate adaptation conference (I like saying that, climate adaptation conference.  Sounds rather Important, and belies the scariness of what is implied, i.e., sea level rise, inundation of lots of coastal cities, including mine, billions of dollars and livelihoods lost, sometime within the next several decades, maybe less?), and I figured I'd take advantage of what was another superlatively gorgeous weekend to get....yes!  Hot lobster rolls. Get them while you can.
 
Captain Scott's Lobster Dock in New London is, in fact, on a dock.  Points for truth in advertising.  The "Captain Scott's" part is a little more dubious, but check out the history page on their website for some interesting non sequiturs, including Captain Scott being included in "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" as a "Human Cork."  Connecticuters do love their history.

Anyway, Captain Scott's dock is tucked away, across the water from Bank St., the main drag in New London.  Driving to it, you come to a somewhat desolate road that has you facing the Amtrak train tracks, which might confuse the first time visitor.  Persevering, you turn onto an industrial, derelict-seeming dock that does, in fact, have an eatery on it, and you breathe a sigh of relief.

The restaurant is a open-air, picnic-y type place with a walk-up counter. For $10.95, you can get a small lobster roll, or for $15.95, you can get a larger one.  I was planning on eating two that day, so I opted for the small one.  Unfortunately, I was so excited about eating the lobster roll, I forgot to photo it, but suffice to say, the lobster meat was a good amount of large chunks, good butter, on a nicely toasted top loading bun.  The meat was clearly fresh, and the bread was good.  It wasn't anything to write home about though.  In a way, it was like a baseline standard for the hot lobster roll.  "Exhibit A - This is a normative hot lobster roll."

At this point, I began to wonder whether I had reached a kind of hot lobster roll quest dead end, where no level of lobster roll greatness would every attain the idealized heights of my imagined, mystical, "OMERGERD!" hot lobster roll.  But, as with most quests in life, there are inevitable dark moments, times of extreme doubt, that end of the rope feeling, a sense of only a yawning dark abyss ahead of you, and behind you….  …yeah, this is lobster rolls.  Facing down dark abysses is not the point.  It's sunny, I'm eating tasty food, I'm alive, I'm in Connecticut.  It's all good.  Really good, in fact.

Incidentally, I didn't particularly love lobster rolls when I started on this little journey. (*gasp*)  They just seemed like a nice, indulgent way to embrace spring.  With a little more experience literally under my belt, I've discovering the delightful subtleties of hot lobster rolls that would have previously gone unnoticed, like the type of meat or toasting of bread.  Stranger still, I'm finding myself craving lobster rolls.  As in, literally, this morning I wanted lobster rolls for breakfast…

Thought this was Nikki Sixx and his girlfriend...

My second goal was to get to Abbott's of Noank.  (Be sure to check out the newsclip on Abbott's homepage for clues on how they make their lobster roll.)  It might be one of the most tucked away places I've ever been.  It's deep in the very cute village of Noank, a part of Mystic. Walking along blooming flowers, lovely houses with attached lighthouses, soaking up the relaxing, quaint seaside atmosphere, Noank will charm your socks off.  A walk around before or after your lobster roll is sure to reward.

 

Scroll down for more Noank pictures.  Amelia Earhart was married in Noank!

People say that Abbott's hot lobster roll is the best in the state.  I'm not ready to judge, but certainly, this hot lobster roll is very unique.  First of all, it's on a sesame bun!  Second, it's shaped.  Like pressed into a small cup and dumped onto the roll.  Third, the meat is not like all the other lobster meat I've had so far.  The chunks are good size, but what I really noticed was that it is salty, not overwhelmingly so but somehow flavored.  Did they put a dash of some extra seasoning in it?  Could it be the way the purportedly steam their lobsters?  We speculated that perhaps they cooked it with seaweed which might impart extra umami to the meat.  Whatever it is, it's tasty.  It comes with coleslaw, chips, and pickle, and in two sizes, normal ($15.95) and why-is-it-so-big (probably $20)?

"Large"

Normal size

Abbott's is a wonderful place to be, looking over Mystic Harbor.  Indoor and outdoor seating is plentiful, though I hear in the summer the place is utterly packed.  As it should be.  If you find it is too crammed, you could scoot on to another well-hidden place in the neighborhood, Ford's, that has a reputation for excellent food as well.  The quest continues!

Near Abbott's dessert stand.