Which cheese for grilled lobster sandwiches?

[Addie]

I just remembered that, about this time last year, I had Lobster Mac and Cheese at a place in Los Angeles. It was really good.

Most recipes I find on the web use a blend of some kind of creamy cheese, like gruyere, and some kind of tangy cheese, like feta or blu cheese.

CD

I had made a big pan of mac and cheese. Now we like tomatoes mixed into our mac and cheese. So Spike took home half of what I had made. He put it on the counter when he got home, and left it there. His bro-inlaw sees it and chunks of red. So he starts to pick out all those delicious red pieces of meat. After he has pigged out on them, he informs Spike that the lobster flavor had been all cooked out. "Tell your mother not to cook the lobster meat so long next time. Otherwise it all tasted good." I was so glad he enjoyed the tomatoes enough to eat all of them. No one ever told him he had been eating canned tomatoes and not overcooked lobster. He died a couple of months later from brain cancer. When Spike told me of his illness and prognoses, I was almost tempted to buy a real lobster for him, but he went too fast.

 

[Addie]

Enjoy Addie - I'm lobster green with envy. We have less than a month of specials on lobster and crab - which is why I pig out on them when available.

At the moment they've gone back to their "normal" price of $15.99 a pound.

I was making up the grocery list for Pirate to go shopping this coming Thursday.
"Hey, Market Basket has lobsters on sale this week at $4.99 a pound. That is kind of high. Can we afford one so I can make my sandwich? Just a small one will do. If you want one also, then it will have to be a bit larger. Or would it be better until we wait when they go down to$3.99 or lower?"

I will be eating my lobster sandwich this coming Thursday night.

A couple of years ago, we had a glut of lobsters on the market. The lobstermen and women weren't even unloading their boasts to sell them to the stores. We decided to head over to Winthrop to buy a couple.

 

[Addie]

The year of the glut, the cheapest we could find was $.89 a pound. So we decided to stock up on them for the freezer. We bought about ten, took them home and steamed the whole pot of them. I mixed up all the meat with mayo, and a tad of celery and Vidalia onions. I took one hot dog bun and filled it to the way I wanted it done. Took out the filling, weighed it and wrapped it tightly with weight marked on the front. I got about 16 sandwiches from all those lobsters. Not a bad deal at all. I just hope we get another glut of lobsters in a coming season.

 

[dragnlaw]

Well, you be sure to let me know and I will drive down there in a flash!

Even with the price of gas for a 6 hour trip there would be worth it.

Alas... I'm not sure I can bring them back over the border. Dead or Alive!

 

[JustJoel]

The year of the glut, the cheapest we could find was $.89 a pound. So we decided to stock up on them for the freezer. We bought about ten, took them home and steamed the whole pot of them. I mixed up all the meat with mayo, and a tad of celery and Vidalia onions. I took one hot dog bun and filled it to the way I wanted it done. Took out the filling, weighed it and wrapped it tightly with weight marked on the front. I got about 16 sandwiches from all those lobsters. Not a bad deal at all. I just hope we get another glut of lobsters in a coming season.

I’d really like to know why, if there’s such a glut of lobster, Cousin’s lobster is still selling lobster rolls for seventeen bucks, and cup of lobster bisque (a really tiny cup, at that) for seven bucks?

The Asian markets here still aren’t very cheap either. Certainly NOT $4.99 a pound!

I need to move to the East Coast, I guess.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

No you don't Joel. Like every other part of the country, New England has one or two seasonal bargains. All the rest of the year we pay through the nose for our commodities out here just like you do in Vegas. What we save on lobsters we make up for in spades with car insurance...and house taxes...and car repairs - and don't even get me started on the cost of housing.

If I wasn't lazy, falling apart, and too cheap to hire work out, we would leave this part of the country and its $4.99 lobsters and head back home to OH. Lethargy is so much easier, though.

BTW, I don't know how far back Addie had to go to come up with 89 cent/pound lobsters, but that price hasn't been around for the nearly two decades we've lived here.

 

[Addie]

Well, you be sure to let me know and I will drive down there in a flash!

Even with the price of gas for a 6 hour trip there would be worth it.

Alas... I'm not sure I can bring them back over the border. Dead or Alive!

Well, it looks like your dream just may come true. Because our government has chosen to increase the tariffs on China, they are no longer buying the large amounts they had been. It seems that most of our lobster catch had been purchased by China. Not anymore. China has told us where we can store or sell those lobsters. Tsk! Tsk. Such language!!! So once again, the lobster catch has glutted the stores and what is left over, they are being sold right from the boats to the public. The stores have filled their needs. Keep an open ear. Drive down to Maine and get your fill.

 

[Addie]

No you don't Joel. Like every other part of the country, New England has one or two seasonal bargains. All the rest of the year we pay through the nose for our commodities out here just like you do in Vegas. What we save on lobsters we make up for in spades with car insurance...and house taxes...and car repairs - and don't even get me started on the cost of housing.

If I wasn't lazy, falling apart, and too cheap to hire work out, we would leave this part of the country and its $4.99 lobsters and head back home to OH. Lethargy is so much easier, though.

BTW, I don't know how far back Addie had to go to come up with 89 cent/pound lobsters, but that price hasn't been around for the nearly two decades we've lived here.

About three years.

I live only two blocks from the pier where a lot of the lobster boats tie up. And there are a plethora of buoys floating just off shore at Shays Beach. (Us old timers still call it by the name we have known it all our lives. They renamed it Constitution Beach a short while back.) At low tide you can walk to the buoys and as so many do, steal the lobsters in the traps. I was at a party once, and the hostess told me how she was able to afford so many lobsters. That information took a lot of joy out of the meal for me that day.

 

[Addie]

So I decided to take a break and stretch a bit. I turned on the TV, and what story comes up from CBS? Yup. The Tariff war regarding Maine lobsters and China. So do keep your ears open and tuned to CBS.

 

[JustJoel]

No you don't Joel. Like every other part of the country, New England has one or two seasonal bargains. All the rest of the year we pay through the nose for our commodities out here just like you do in Vegas. What we save on lobsters we make up for in spades with car insurance...and house taxes...and car repairs - and don't even get me started on the cost of housing.

If I wasn't lazy, falling apart, and too cheap to hire work out, we would leave this part of the country and its $4.99 lobsters and head back home to OH. Lethargy is so much easier, though.

BTW, I don't know how far back Addie had to go to come up with 89 cent/pound lobsters, but that price hasn't been around for the nearly two decades we've lived here.

The East Coast has its problems, for sure. But so does the West Coast, and not just California! Vegas is getting to be very expensive as well. It’s been my dream, and it will probably go unfulfilled, is to live in NYC, preferably in a space that’s mostly open with a beautiful kitchen and large terrace. Hahahahaha! I do love NYC, though. Broadway, the museums, the availability of, well, pretty much anything you want, and Central Park to boot! Subways (any kind of public transport, for that matter) mean I don’t have to drive. And New Yorkers are great, contrary to popular belief. They’re just a bit gruffer, a bit more in a hurry to get … somewhere. No need to buy into it, but it’s essential you recognize it for what it is.

Sorry, back to lobsters. And I’m usually content with large shrimp, frozen’s fine, ‘cause that’s all I’ll ever get here. So no, if I do move east, it won’t be for the lobster.

 

[Addie]

The East Coast has its problems, for sure. But so does the West Coast, and not just California! Vegas is getting to be very expensive as well. It’s been my dream, and it will probably go unfulfilled, is to live in NYC, preferably in a space that’s mostly open with a beautiful kitchen and large terrace. Hahahahaha! I do love NYC, though. Broadway, the museums, the availability of, well, pretty much anything you want, and Central Park to boot! Subways (any kind of public transport, for that matter) mean I don’t have to drive. And New Yorkers are great, contrary to popular belief. They’re just a bit gruffer, a bit more in a hurry to get … somewhere. No need to buy into it, but it’s essential you recognize it for what it is.

Sorry, back to lobsters. And I’m usually content with large shrimp, frozen’s fine, ‘cause that’s all I’ll ever get here. So no, if I do move east, it won’t be for the lobster.

If it has a shell on it, I will eat it. Shrimp, lobster, clams, scallops,quahogs, etc. Seven days a week, and I would be living in heaven.

According to Pirate, NYC has changed for the better over the years. He just hops on the train, and leaves Boston for just a day or two. His idea of a quick vacation. He has friends that live right in downtown NYC.

 

[tenspeed]

Enjoy Addie - I'm lobster green with envy. We have less than a month of specials on lobster and crab - which is why I pig out on them when available.

At the moment they've gone back to their "normal" price of $15.99 a pound.

That's interesting. I wouldn't think it would be much more difficult to ship lobster by truck to Montreal. Lobsters are shipped up and down the Maine coast. All of the mussels I've seen locally are PEI rope grown mussels, usually $2 - $3 / lb., so I wouldn't think shipping costs would be all that great, but mussels are a lot easier to ship than lobster. PEI is further away than Montreal. For those that don't know, lobsters decompose rapidly once they die, so they must be kept alive during shipping.

A couple of points: The $4.99 /lb. lobsters are the barely legal sized lobsters, usually just over a pound. The price goes up for the larger ones. This past weekend I bought halves (1-1/2 to 1-3/4 lb.) which the local pound was selling for $7 /lb. The reports I've seen stated that 20% of Maine's lobster catch goes to China. It's not clear what effect the Chinese tariffs will have on the demand from China, as it's a luxury food. For the moment, the wholesale price of lobster has remained steady, but we're in tourist season, which is the period of the heaviest demand.

The lowest price I can recall was $2.99 /lb., but that was about 25 years ago. Local prices typically drop for soft shell lobster, as they are much more difficult to ship, but they also have less meat than hard shell lobster. Winter prices for lobster are $8 - $10 /lb. (to the best that I can recall), but I don't buy them during the winter.

 

[dragnlaw]

BTW, I don't know how far back Addie had to go to come up with 89 cent/pound lobsters, but that price hasn't been around for the nearly two decades we've lived here.

That's what I was thinking.

... I wouldn't think it would be much more difficult to ship lobster by truck to Montreal. ....
All of the mussels I've seen locally are PEI rope grown mussels, usually $2 - $3 / lb., so I wouldn't think shipping costs would be all that great, but mussels are a lot easier to ship than lobster.

and Yes, Mussels are about the same price here...

A couple of points: The $4.99 /lb. lobsters are the barely legal sized lobsters, usually just over a pound. The price goes up for the larger ones. This past weekend I bought halves (1-1/2 to 1-3/4 lb.)*** which the local pound was selling for $7 /lb.

The lowest price I can recall was $2.99 /lb., but that was about 25 years ago.

*** here, those are the ones priced at $15 to $17 per lb. 2 lb and up start at $18. during the tourist season (in St. Andrew, NB) the price may only be $1 or 2 lower... go figure.

 

[jennyema]

What we save on lobsters we make up for in spades with car insurance...and house taxes...and car repairs - and don't even get me started on the cost of housing.

The city of Boston's property taxes are insanely low.... plus we have cheap lobster!

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Boston would not have been a good living location for us when we moved here, jenny, based on Himself's work location and hours. Besides, neither of us are "city mice". We live about 60 miles from Boston. You are right about an affordable tax rate, though. Our house out in the sticks has an annual $4000 tax bill, whereas the same value house in Boston is taxed at about $2550. Our tax per $1000 ($11.73) isn't that much more than Boston's ($10.48). We built where we are because we found out the closer you are to Boston, the more the dwelling cost. With what we sold our large and fancy OH home for, south central Worcester County was as far as we could stretch the budget and still sleep at night. And taxes in OH are even more ridiculously low - our previous house, 700+ square feet larger and with lots of upscale features, is currently being taxed at under $3500. a year.

Besides, we like scallops or shrimp better.

 

[Addie]

The $4.99 /lb. lobsters are the barely legal sized lobsters,

And for that reason alone, I make sure they weigh and measure them right in front of me. I also will not purchase females that are covered with roe. Other than buying them right off the boat, I always try to buy from a reputable sell that is licensed to buy and sell them.

 

[Addie]

Remember, I was married to a commercial fisherman. When they haul back their nets and open the bottom of them on the aft deck, there is every creature in them. Including lobsters, shrimp, clams, quahogs, etc. All that gets tossed right back into the sea. If any of the crew members wanted to bring home a lobster, they all made sure they were legal. Three legal size male lobsters usually was enough to feed my family of six. And I always made sure the lobster was mixed in with another dish like a nice salad.

Also if there were other type of fish on the limited catch list, they could only keep so many pounds of that fish. When Haddock was placed on that list, I was heart broken. Lobster and Haddock, my very two favorite foods from the sea. Not so with lobster now, and most of our Haddock is from Iceland. The market fluctuates constantly. In spite of my five year off and on absence from this area, I still have managed to keep in touch with a few of the men or now their children who took over their family boats. Every so often one of them will call me and give me a nice big Haddock. Unfortunately for their family, they get sick of eating it and crave red meat. I would have the Haddock any day and so would Pirate.

I do follow the market on seafood rather closely.

 

[Mad Cook]

No Cheese. This week lobsters are only $4.99 lb. I will be buying one for my lobster sandwich on a toasted hot dog roll.

Crumbs! Lucky you - lobster at about £3.50 a lb! I've just had to pick my jaw up off the ground. Lobsters are serious up-market food and priced as such over here.

Hope you're feeling better and the leg is behaving itself.

 

[Addie]

Crumbs! Lucky you - lobster at about £3.50 a lb! I've just had to pick my jaw up off the ground. Lobsters are serious up-market food and priced as such over here.

Hope you're feeling better and the leg is behaving itself.

Thank you for the good wishes. Yes, the leg is healing very nicely. Everyday the nurse comes and changes all my dressings. I took myself off the heavy duty opioids. So now I am on a very mild one. Tramadol. But actually though, the gabapentin is working so much better than any other medication for pain has worked. But they do make me very sleepy.

Thank you for commentating and asking. Now about those lobsters. Pirate found a store for lobsters for $3.99 a pound. That means I can get two of them instead of one. YUM!!!

 

[Mad Cook]

Thank you for the good wishes. Yes, the leg is healing very nicely. Everyday the nurse comes and changes all my dressings. I took myself off the heavy duty opioids. So now I am on a very mild one. Tramadol. But actually though, the gabapentin is working so much better than any other medication for pain has worked. But they do make me very sleepy.

Thank you for commentating and asking. Now about those lobsters. Pirate found a store for lobsters for $3.99 a pound. That means I can get two of them instead of one. YUM!!!

I'm glad to hear that the leg is getting better - well, you know what I mean! Best wishes.