Look at this thing.
Sometimes, you go out to lunch and get served a lobster roll that’s bigger than your head.
I’m not kidding. I wish I had something smaller in the photo to show scale. Like, a regular-sized lobster roll on a hot dog bun.
And I didn’t even have to go to the shoreline. This behemoth is served at Maine Fish Market , a hugely popular seafood restaurant in East Windsor. The furnishings and decor might be straight out of the ’70s (literally) but the fish is fresh, delicious and plentiful.
The meat was tender and sweet, tossed with just the right amount of cold mayonnaise and a little bit of paprika. No celery, just how I like it. Just a few shreds of lettuce nestled into the bun. Can I even call that a bun? It was more like a full baguette. As it was, I cut the roll in half and ate the lobster meat out of it.
I shared my lobster experience with Facebook friends this afternoon, and thus started the Great Lobster Roll Debate. You see, until I moved to Connecticut, I’d never had a “hot” lobster roll. In the Nutmeg State, restaurants default to these, with the meat bathed in butter and nestled on a toasted roll or bun. The concept was completely foreign to someone who’d grown up eating cold “lobster salad” sandwiches. Mayo, sometimes celery, lettuce – on a split-top hot dog bun.
First comment, from a Connecticut-raised grad school friend: “Panera is now selling lobster roll sandwiches and I rolled my eyes at them because it wasn’t a real lobster roll…It had mayo.”
Second comment, from a Worcester-born Assumption College friend: “A lobster roll without mayo? Fascinating. Sounds tasty.”
Third comment, from a Boston-area raised college friend: “I didn’t know they had lobster rolls without mayo either!”
Now that I’ve had both, I can say they’re equally tasty. The hot version has the butter advantage, enhancing the flavor of the lobster meat and soaking into the bread. (When the meat is gone, it’s like an extra bonus.) But there’s something about the temperature contrast when you’re eating cold lobster salad stuffed into a warm, toasted roll.
I think I’ll have to take the “northern New England” road on this issue, with the conclusion that dude, there really is no bad way to eat lobster. Except maybe the McLobster sandwich.
Leeanne Griffin is a freelance writer and food enthusiast.
