10 best New England lobster rolls

So, yeah....Due to another complete lapse of fiscal responsibility..(do not read this as regret however) I made a reservation at Atera for last night.  I of course had heard many remarkaable things about this Portland,--right?- chefs "cooking", some from this very blog...!  

Totally cool hidden (sort of) entrance....I guess idea is like going into a enclosed forest cove type thing, def keeping with forage-y food theme...Liked that. Also liked lively music vibe, good for situation that could get too hushed and precious.  Went first to lower level lounge...sort of mega VIP post apocalypse bunker. Could live there if had to I guess.  Had what proved to be an effecting (today that is) cocktail drink to start.  After went with recomended sparkling Huet Vouvray...cool.  First blizzard of dishes, small nutty (as in kooky) things come out...Crunchy Beer foam w caviar, Pickled beet w little greens, wrapped in bees wax new one on me..great tho.  And so...yeah keeps on coming...Little lobster roll...etc...Only item that was not too engaging was Razor clam, garlic and almond...just too much like pile of nuts...Kind of was hoping for the other Razor clam dish I read about...the tromp loi...(sp?) clam painted to look like a shell you can eat.  I fact I dont think we had many, if any, of those fool the eye-- "oh, you cant eat that, looks like a pile of mossy dirt and rocks"---Noma kind of things Id heard about.  However there were plenty of dishes with flavors and textures that put me in the positon of feeling like, "yeah, basically this is like crawling on the ground in the woods and chewing"....Reminded me of going to controversial LA sushi place "Hump" years ago when they flayed a live ell and served it right away, was wiggling on plate I believe...Idea struck me that this how a bear eats in a stream.  So here at Atera too it seems that the ambition for highly refined food these days is to replicate how to eat like an animal...But for more money. Sure Im not first person to make this comparison...but. Im happy to pay, when can.   Lamb thing was awesome, supper slow cooked, like raw almost, Hake fish item fantastic...too many to list dude...!  And then to keep my exploration of Finger Lakes wine going had glass of AMAZING Cab Franc by Element Wines...??? Never heard of...So far been loving Eminence Road Cabs,(thanks Skin). This totally great to compare with, much more Rhone-y than lighter, "pretty" Burg style E Road.  

We also had insanely detailed tutorial on tea...guy gave Michelle tea leaves to take home...nutty...Needless to say we were last to leave.  So we heading out and dudes are like.."Hey so hope we'll see you again Steve....octopus, helicopters, yeah we know.."  WTF??  Guess when you serve 12 people a sitting you got time to Google them.  Cant hide, even in the forest.....

sdb

I made a sales call to a national chain (steakhouse) restaurant, they must list calories by law.....

1) 4 course meal of lobster/crab cakes + cup clam chowder + mozzerella salad + big steak w/ veggie side's = 1900 calories

or

2) side of shoestring fries = 1870 calories

I had fries for lunch elsewhere, scary

I've written about it previously, but we had another amazing meal at Fore Street in Portland Maine. This included the best oyster of my life (corroborated by Janet) which was from Nonesuch Oysters. Also on the table were an amazing trio of terrines (including boar foie gras), some lobster as part of a seafood crudo that was (and I know it sounds like I'm exaggerating here) again the best I have ever had. For entrees we had a duck, a steak, a rabbit (cooked on a spit over an open fire) and a pasta dish all of which were perfect. The reasonably priced '81 Lopez Tondonia was no longer on the list, but I took a shot in the dark on a California Pinot (I know, I was feeling a little crazy) from Drouhin (a burgundy producer who I didn't know had something going in California) which turned out great. There is some slanderous talk about how I got a little drunk and wouldn't stop telling our waitress how great everything was, but I'm sure that's exaggerated and I acted with perfect composure.

In any case, still highly recommended.

ev lobster roll

Back from our annual Maine adventure. Two nights in Portland brought us two great dinners. Hugo's and Fore Street. Both would be at home in NYC in terms of quality and price.

Hugo's is perhaps a bit more experimental with pistachio encrusted lambs tongue being the standout of my meal (with an honorable mention going to the tongue in cheek "general tsao's chicken" made with sweet breads.) The room is tiny though, and not really in a good way, while the wine list left me severely underwhelmed. Reading on Chowhound I see a lot of complaints about portion size. Possibly the restaurant read these too as our waitress went to great lengths to describe how all the dishes on the menu are appetizer size and you really want to order a minimum of three. We ordered three each and then two more to share (at her urging) and of course it was way too much food. Still a very nice meal from a chef who was the 2009 James Beard Foundation winner of Best Chef Northeast.

Fore Street, in contrast, is a beautiful room. Huge open warehouse loft with the completely visible kitchen in the middle of the room. Great great energy. Lots of fresh fish and vegetables on display in glass enclosed walk in refrigerators. Staffs seemed a bit more professional as did the over all feel. Not quite as experimental as Hugo's but that might be a good thing. The focus is fresh local ingredients and they don't get in the way of them by trying anything too fancy. I had some of the best oysters I've every had to start and tasted an incredible (tender!) squid dish. My dinning mates had an incredible lobster dish for their main and I had a nice pheasant. The wine list is very interesting including some old Lopez which is a fav around these parts and not something I necessarily expect to find in Maine. And it didn't seem out of place on the list.

If I had to go back for one night I'd do Fore Street for sure, but Hugo's definitely has some interesting cooking going on.

AMSTERDAM, N.Y. (AP) -- After he finished his lobster dinner, an upstate New York man apparently was still hungry for seafood so he swapped the lobster shell for crab legs -- and now he faces a petit larceny charge.

Montgomery County Sheriff's deputies said a 57-year-old man brought back a reassembled lobster shell to his local Price Chopper store and claimed the crustacean was spoiled.

The store manager was about to let him trade the lobster for a $27 bag of king crab legs when he discovered the lobster was just a shell. Deputies said the man ran from the store clutching the crab legs when he was confronted.

Deputies said the man had already devoured the crab legs when they caught up with him at home. He was given an appearance ticket to answer the larceny charge in court.

DAVID FOSTER WALLACE CONSIDER THE LOBSTER

roll your own

had a excellent meal at Sugiyama, deep meal, modern kaiseki, kobe rocks, super lobster with uni baked on the roe/green gook, lots of shrooms, tons of texture.....aint no Kai....

90 Points

three of the best dishes from Jean George were:

lobster scented with mace, fresh lychees and celery hearts in a ice wine verjus dressing

peekytoe crab and english pea fondue, rhubarb gelee, shiso puree

foie gras brulee, slow roasted strawberries and aged balsamic

At Bacco in NOLA had swordfish, most tasty, tasted black truffle fettuccine, yum, and sampled shrimp and lobster ravioli, not my favorite, it seemed over-flavored and of questionable texture. Wine was Opus 1 (?) California (?), whatever, it was favorable to my senses. Room is nice, good ceilings, but noisy, wait staff is attentive but slightly android-ish.

Went to the Mermaid Inn last night (low 2nd avenue.) Good crowd for late Monday night. I really like the room. Service was excellent - extremely competent, but also relaxed. The much anticipated $10 mark up on all wine turns out to not be as great as I was (for no real reason) expecting. While the list is very nice, it's also very inexpensive. This is fine, but I had dreams of $50 bottles for $60. It's more like $16 bottles for $26.

Just me and MB so we didn't try everything. Had the fish cowder (hope you like bacon) and the fried oysters to start. Both good, although it's hard to eat fried oysters around the corner from Prune and not think of their most excellent version. And then a very nice fish sandwich (perfect bun) and a sardine app for mains, with a generous side of lobster mashed potatoes (big chunks, yum.)

I'll definitely go back, and won't be surprised if it finds a permanent spot in the rotation. Still, none of the things we ate were a best of kind experience. Great addition to the neighborhood though.

the lobster zone

ill bet the lobster doesnt think its funny

the backlash

what peta says to do if the bastards put one in your neighborhood (note cute pic of drew b)

you may already have won...

"THE World's Most Decadent Hamburger" has come to New York. Served at the Old Homestead in - where else? - the Meatpacking District, the $41 sandwich is made of "hand-massaged, beer-fed" kobe beef, "lobster mushrooms" and micro greens on a parmesan twist roll. "It's the world's most incredible beef," boasts owner Marc Sherry. "Each cattle is hand-massaged and beer-fed, so when the meat is slaughtered the fat content and marbling is very high." The fatty feast is costlier than Manhattan's previous record-holders, the $29 dinnertime burger at '21' and the $27 DB Burger at DB Bistro Moderne. -nyp

i'm ready
(from ny magazine)
Svenningsen's
When some chefs branch out and open a new restaurant, they have a loyal client base to fall back on. Ron Svenningsen has a congregation. For the past sixteen years, he's held the title of head chef at Marble Collegiate Church, feeding the flock at various singles dinners, Sunday brunches, and ladies' teas. But the former lobsterman and northern Maine restaurateur dreamed of opening his own old-fashioned fish house, serving shore dinners, fried Ipswich clams, and seafood crêpes. Hence Svenningsen's, his homey restaurant that opens next week a block from the church. "I'll put my lobster roll up against anybody's," he says. "I use only the knuckles, with just enough Hellmann's to bind it, and a homemade bun with a little butter placed on the griddle — it's got to be a griddle so you get that buttery flavor." Mary's and Pearl's, watch your backs.
292 Fifth Avenue, near 30th St.
212-465-1888

Of late my three favorite dining experiences all happen to total under $10. I have been cooking at home most nights out of a general weariness with restaurants (this might have something to do with the fact that everyone I associate with can speak of nothing else as they are building one, and I feel like I have been swept up in some very dodgy cult that can’t quite dislodge itself from the birth canal, but also the fact that most eateries all seem a little disappointing. Much of the time something reductive happens on the way from the home kitchen to the restaurant kitchen—perhaps it’s as simple as volume, volume of customers, volume of food being prepared, and number of hands putting out a dish—and things just start to taste less). Apart from this culinary narcissim, economy and nutrition are also contributing factors. Why can’t you eat a big dish of delicious vegetables anywhere? But when not in the kitchen, I happily resort to these venues: Dumpling House at 118A Eldridge Street, where the visuals provided by the cooks are as delightful as the food (try the chives and pork fried dumpling, the sesame pancake with beef, or the chives and egg pancake). Dessert can then be had at the nearby Laboratorio del Gelato on Orchard. For simple but excellent Chinese take out (or eat it there) head to Golden Siu Sam Yuen at 5 Catherine Street (near Chatham Square and East Broadway) for their roast duck (or eel, or salt-baked chicken, or barbecued small pig, or ribs, or lobster) with rice and vegetables. When in the northern territories, two hot dogs with sweet relish and a mango papaya drink from Gray’s Papaya at 2090 Broadway and 73rd, can result in a person feeling deeply contented.

Day 8/ My Khe Beach & Hoi An: Lunch at Loi Restaurant (all seafood and its in tanks) was great, grilled clams w/ spicy tomatoe, stir fried shrimp w/ tomatoe onion, 3 small lobsters, and I am sure we were overcharged at $20 w/ 4 beers but I cant bargin....Dinner in Hoi An (a famous port city from 1400's to late 1800's) at Ly 22 Cafe was purr-fecto, shrimp dumplings, green papaya salad, fried wontons, all were clean and clear.

Day 9/ Hoi An: 6:30 am to the market, one of the best I have been to, boats moar up and fish is unloaded, greens of every shape and scent are cleaned and sold, we eat a donut like cake w/ a bean paste in side 100 points, right by the river in a down and dirty stall I go for a local dish, rich fatty pork over rice + egg cake, with a side of a green's I have never seen or can name but it was like spanish taraggon. All afternoon I felt microbe's eating my insides, not an amebic(sp?) reality luckly but a bugger for sure, Linda's just thinks I am getting lazy, so we head to the pool and than a long nap.
Dinner at Cafe des Amis, open now 10 years, set menu's at less than 4$ either seafood or veggie, we do one of each, all the history of the local food is in these dish's, one is verry Chinese, one is made with curry, others are local specialty's (Haoi An's sister city's in history are Malaka and Macau), we thought very good and the view's of the river and its activity from the balcony was priceless. After dinner Ho Chi's revenge sets in......

Typical year-end list from the Post, but I was struck by this item:

GOOFIEST ITEM IN A DISH: Popcorn - actual popcorn - in $14.50 corn-and-lobster soup at the Carlyle Hotel restaurant. It's even less successful than it sounds.

AKA used popcorn (successfully, I thought) in a corn soup earlier this year. I thought it was novel, but I guess it was a trend. Or was it a ripoff? Or is there any difference in the food world? Inquiring minds want gossip, not gastronomy.

November 21, 2001

Up there with best meals ever, which I normally don’t associate with fine dining situations being more prone to romanticize the sausage and bread by the side of the road in Italy over any starred situation: Mju in the Millennium Hotel, London on Sloane Street. The Japanese/Australian chef Tetsuya Wakuda serves his fare in a hotel room reminiscent of some starship bridge crossed with a crusty hotel dining room, i.e. ugly, but this did nothing to detract from the tasting menu whose courses ran into two digits. In fact I began to enjoy our strangely incongruous surroundings. The tasting itself was beautifully orchestrated (I usually balk at these assaults on the taste buds and digestive process) with modest portions that built in flavour to a crescendo leaving us all uncharacteristically speechless. Some of the courses came two at a time. He is one of those smart chefs, reminiscent of a certain hirsute one on Clinton Street, that understands perfectly the harmony of flavor, texture, and the visual elements of food. I kept thinking of Huysmans; I’m not ready for redemption—y et. You eat whatever is being served but the kitchen will accommodate requests/allergies. Here is the full confession: tomato tea consomme; oysters with ginger & mirin dressing; salad of tuna, orange, shiso sauce; some mousse/lobster concoction; tataki of venison, truffle peaches with rosemary & honey; roast langoustine with tea & shellfish oil; confit of wild Scottish salmon with marinated celery; carpaccio of sea scallops with foie gras & citrus soy; lobster ravioli with seaweed vinaigrette & shellfish essence; shitake & buckwheat risotto with grilled foie gras; steamed razor clams with cauliflower and broccoli florets; double cooked de-boned spatchcock (Scottish poussin) with braised daikon & bread sauce; Scottish Black-Angus beef with shitake mushrooms on truffle mash; sorbet of lychee & strawberry; floating island with vanilla bean & praline anglaise. Great wines too, one of which was apparently absurdly underpriced, a Rousseau Grand Cru that the wine detective spotted and which they were gracious enough to serve at the listed price. 50 English pounds for the tasting. Go while the fares remain low.

Tangerine. 228 west 10th street NYC. 212.463.8585

Tangerine is a new Thai restaurant in the west village. If my sources are correct this is the first US venture for a prominent Hong Kong restaurant group. The space is sleek and modern. I think it looks good. The details (glasses, flatware, dishes, chairs) are some of the best I've seen. Obviously someone who knows about design is involved.

The food was quite enjoyable ranging on up to superb. The lobster pad thai was a personal fave. Lots of stuff for the fish and veggie crowd. The service, in marked contrast to everything else, was verging on comedy. I think there is some sort of language and/or cultural barrier adding to the mayhem. It didn't wreck our meal, but others, or even myself in a different mood, might have felt different. They are new, and I think they'll get it together, but for now don't expect too much in that department. On the other hand, maybe that will keep the crowds down for the time being. Quite empty when we went last week, but I bet it won't be for long. I guess this all amounts to a recommendation.

12,000,000 pounds of lobster

my neighbors are having a party on the roof outside my window. the noise wasnt bad but ive had to endure the b52s rock lobster twice. i might have to consider arming myself to liberate my senses. make that three times. good thing i didnt sign any antiballistic missile treaty.

5/28/00 how can you tell what is a great restaurant?? well i heard of one supossed here in merida, only open for lunch when they feel like it. so as this is my final day in merida i was happy to see the doors open. it was a small clean but sparce place with photos on the wall of the owner with the pope, bull fighters and the local music stars so i knew it was going to be fun and as its name is "el cangrejito" (the crab) i was sure that seafood was the speciality. and as a recent veghead turned fish eater i was excited. all the foods were served by the owner himself from behind this small glass stand and all of the tapas like foods were served as tacos with superb admixtures. i orderded one of each as there were only 5 (shrimp, lobster, fish, crab, conch) sucked them down quickly with a beer and the "fish nazi" watch my every move to see if i liked. and then he came over to see what i thought to the dislike of other patrons whom had to wait while i commented as no one else could get back behind the maestro's glass arena. out of respect i said another round and el capitain smiled like a cheshire cat and made me up another round. i stuffed them down with another beer and was about to burst and i was about to get the check when another beer arrived from the waitress whom said was from the chef whom had misteriously disapeared to the kitchen. when he returned he told me to wait and at this point some guests had walked out do to no service and the whole time i was there the phone was ringing and maestro picked it up "yes were open" and hang up the phone without another word. boom another plate of tacos is placed in front of me and as i feared it was no fish but what appeared to be an animal from the inside out, which reminded me of when i was in north thailand one chinese new year hanging with the chief of an opium hamlet and i had to sit by his side as guest and get the prime parts of a rarely eaten bird again from the inside out. the grandson started with the brains and i was next and i started with the womb and its egg--scary shit!! at this point i had the whole restaurant watching me as i was now eating more tacos than two huge mexicans and must be important to get all these "specials". i ate them as fast and as respecfully as i could and was hoping to bolt back to the hotel to hang with my good friend Anna Rexia when another beer appeared and the place was put on hold again as el freako ran off laughing to the kitchen to come back with one final taco. not recognizing it at all i sluged it with beer down with the chef towering over me awaiting my responce. "excellente senor, que es??" at which point he takes his hat off and said "brains me amigo brains" something i thought i didnt have for steping in here.....