We were puzzling over the lengthy restaurant menu, struggling to work with our limited vocabulary in Italian. Southern Italy is a delightful place to visit, but with far fewer Western visitors than you find in northern Italy, you cannot expect to read everything in English. When I came to the “spaghetti all’aragosta,” I recognized the word for lobster. While I enjoy lobster as much as anyone else, I passed over the dish to order a wonderful veal piccata with capers and wild mushrooms.
In 45 years of working around the world, I have enjoyed lobster in many countries, prepared in a wide array of dishes. Yet it is not always my first choice when traveling abroad. Mary and I recall fondly a 1998 visit to a tiny village in Cornwall on the south coast of England, where we stayed in an old thatched cottage. Late in the afternoon we walked to the harbor to watch the fishing boats come in, hoping to buy fresh seafood for dinner. We were tempted when a weathered fisherman placed a crate with several lobsters on the dock, but the price was out of sight.
There are roughly 75 species of lobster around the world, and they vary considerably in size, shape and quality. The Italian lobster I passed up was probably the Mediterranean spiny lobster or the diminutive slipper lobster. Along with 40 other species, neither has the large front claws that we consider a delicacy in our local lobsters. In my experience, the warmer waters of the Mediterranean and higher pollution levels result in an inferior texture and taste.
It must be said that even our American lobster, Homarus americanus, was not highly rated by the early European settlers who arrived in New England. The early explorer Magellan noted in his logbook the vast number of lobsters in New England waters and their fine taste. But seafood was a distant alternative to meat, and the forests here provided a regular supply of venison. Lobster was considered more suitable for peasants or indentured farm workers, and also was served on a regular basis to prison inmates. Recorded history shows that lobsters were easily harvested by walking along rocky flats at low tide, but it was not until the middle of the 20th century that the meat transitioned from a low-cost, canned staple to a premium choice for fine dining.
Lobsters have been around for millions of years based on fossil records, and like many other marine species appear relatively unchanged through time. Historically they were common as far south as the Carolinas, but today the commercial harvesting of lobsters is mainly a story of Maine and the Canadian Maritime Provinces. Rising ocean temperatures, predation, disease and pollution all seem to play a role in population losses. Recent sampling surveys of juveniles have reported substantial reductions in lobster numbers in southern Maine waters.
Even a Mainer with little experience eating lobster knows that the quality of the meat varies considerably from new- or soft-shelled lobster to hard-shelled and old-shelled “bugs” that require the use of a mallet to crack them open. When I was harvesting lobsters each summer on a recreational permit, I used to look forward to the appearance of the soft-shelled lobsters both for the ease of opening them and their sweet, delicate flavor. Everyone has a favorite kind of lobster and fortunately for our fishing community, Maine lobsters have many fans as far away as China.
The food industry is constantly changing, and lobsters are part of the discussion. There was widespread unhappiness here when the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch group decided to list American lobster as a species to avoid. Their rationale was that the fishery was not sustainable, ignoring decades of harvest data and scientific studies. Another challenge has been the push by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to add new restrictions on Maine lobstermen to help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. An ongoing debate concerns the ethics of handling and cooking lobsters. In Italy the law stipulates a fine up to $600 for boiling a live lobster, while Switzerland requires electrocution or stunning the lobster before cooking.
Lobster is low in cholesterol, saturated fat and calories if you avoid the hot butter. With protein, amino acids, minerals and natural vitamins, plus omega-3 fatty acids to fight heart disease, lobster is just great food. Tourists gorge themselves, paying up to $45 per lobster roll. Suit yourself, but make mine soft-shelled and steamed, with no trimmings!
