Saturday, September 01, 2007

Bugs on the grill


It's lobster season here in Florida, meaning :
1) You can don mask and fins and hit the reefs to bag a few bugs for dinner. Or,
2) You can hit the local fish market and pay $10.98/pound for whole lobster like I did.

In other words, that's $46.90 worth of Florida lobster we're looking at. One lobster weighed just shy of two-and-half pounds, the other just north of a pound and a half, the end result being slightly more than one pound of lobster meat. And if you do that math ... well, don't. Because it will ruin dinner.

Yes, it was good. My wife and I ate it with grilled romaine and corn on the cob. I was feeling kinda cocky because I went in for a physical last week and my total cholesterol came in lower than 180, which meant I got to indulge in plenty of drawn butter. And half a bottle of Spanish wine, a nice Grenache, which might not be the perfect accompaniment to grilled lobster, but I don't do white except under extreme duress.

The only real downside is that our house stinks something fierce because I put the lobster heads and all the meat-picked shells into a big pot, covered them with water, threw in onions and celery and garlic and pepper, and boiled it down for hours, creating a stock that I hope to turn into a killer lobster bisque.

Otherwise, it's damn hard to justify $46.90 for two measly bugs on the grill...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking you have the right idea. I went lobstering in the Keys last weekend....let' see.

Gas to get there $100
Boat gas $ 50
Fill tanks $ 10
Woops...shop will not fill tanks
made prior to 1982
New tanks $220
Regulator won't work $150
Beer $50 (take away the pain of tanks & regulator)
License + Lobster stamp $ 20
Lost my tickle stick $ 10

Day 1 8 measly bugs (two of us)
Day 2 blown out

Total $76.25 per bug

Terry Odell said...

I can't even begin to do the math on the lobster dinner we had on a chartered boat in the Caribbean where we (okay, not me, because there are evil things living in the water--I know because my brother watched Sea Hunt every week, and Lloyd Bridges nearly died every time) caught spiny lobster. But diving for dinner was that night's menu.

I much preferred the anniversary dinner my daughter sent when she lived in Maine. Two large critters arrived packed in seaweed. Yum.

Anonymous said...

grilled romaine! I had that idea just last week!! It was delicious..but would have been better with the lobsters than the chicken...ah..what are you going to do?
love your books btw....

Kang Boim said...

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