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Podcast Summary: This Is TASTE - Episode 629: It’s Always Maine Lobster Season with Ham El-Waylly
Episode Overview In this episode of *This Is TASTE*, the hosts Aliza Abarbanel and Matt Rodbard explore the culinary world of Maine Lobster. The episode features interviews with chef Ham El-Waylly, journalist Luke Pyenson, and Maine lobsterman Kurt Brown, providing insights into lobster's unique flavor, its preparation, and the sustainable practices surrounding its harvest.
Key Guests
- Ham El-Waylly: Chef-owner of Strange Delight in Brooklyn, shares his experiences with Maine lobster.
- Luke Pyenson: Journalist who traveled to Maine to report on lobster, discusses his culinary discoveries.
- Kurt Brown: Lobsterman and marine biologist, shares insights into the life of a lobsterman and sustainability practices in Maine.
Main Discussions
- The Unique Flavor of Maine Lobster
- Sweetness and Versatility: Maine lobster is celebrated for its unique sweetness and versatility, making it a coveted ingredient in various culinary contexts.
- Different Cuts: The episode discusses the distinct flavors of different lobster parts (claw, tail, and head) and how each can be utilized in cooking.
- Ham El-Waylly's Culinary Journey
- Early Experiences: Ham shares his first memories of lobster, emphasizing the difference between lobster available in Qatar and Maine lobster.
- Techniques: Discusses the importance of cooking techniques in bringing out the best in lobster.
- Lobster Dishes: Ham reflects on creative ways to present lobster at Strange Delight, including a modern take on lobster Thermidor.
- Luke Pyenson's Reporting from Maine
- Maine's Culinary Scene: Luke shares insights from his trip to Maine, highlighting restaurants and chefs who creatively use lobster.
- Sustainability: He discusses the commitment of Maine’s lobster industry to sustainable practices, which have helped increase lobster populations over the years.
- Life as a Lobsterman: Insights from Kurt Brown
- Daily Routine: Kurt describes a typical day lobstering, emphasizing the challenges posed by weather and the commitment to sustainable practices.
- Sustainability Efforts: He explains the regulations in place to maintain healthy lobster populations, including the notching of egg-bearing females.
- Cooking Lobster: Kurt shares his simple yet delicious methods of preparing lobster, emphasizing that anyone can cook it with ease.
Key Takeaways
- Culinary Versatility: Maine lobster can be enjoyed in numerous ways, from simple boils to complex dishes.
- Sustainability Practices: Maine's lobster industry is a model of sustainability, with strict regulations ensuring the health and longevity of lobster populations.
- Personal Connection: Each guest shares their personal connection to lobster, whether through cooking, reporting, or harvesting, highlighting the cultural significance of this ingredient in Maine.
Conclusion This episode offers a rich exploration of Maine lobster—from the waters of Maine to the dining tables across the world. It emphasizes the importance of sustainability and culinary creativity, making it clear that Maine lobster is not just a luxury item but a versatile and accessible ingredient for all home cooks.
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Additional Resources
- Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative: For more information on purchasing Maine lobster, visit lobsterfrommaine.com/how-to-buy.
- Read More: Explore the article “Maine Lobster in Technicolor” for further insights.
Note This episode showcases the vibrant culture surrounding Maine lobster and the dedication of those who bring it from the ocean to our plates, making it a must-listen for food enthusiasts and home cooks alike.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:07This is the great thing with lobster. You can easily use every single part of it, and you can really get good bang for your buck. The claw meat is completely different than the tail meat, and you get a different flavor when you make a stock out of the heads. So you can get so many different nuances throughout one lobster. This is Taste. I'm your host, Matt Rodbart.
0:35Today on the show, we are talking all about Maine Lobster, one of the world's great foods harvested directly from the cold waters of Maine, giving it its unique and sweet taste. First up is a great conversation with Ham Aweili. Ham is the chef owner of the buzzy Brooklyn restaurant Strange Delight, and he tells us about how Maine lobster has been a big part of his culinary career. We talk about how he thinks about cooking with lobster and where he is spotting it on menus around the world. We also sent Ham a box of Maine lobsters to cook at home. The results were pretty amazing. Also on the show, we speak with journalist Luke Piensohn.
1:11Luke traveled to Maine to report a story for taste, and we find out where he went and who he met, and of course, all the lobster he ate. We talk about Maine Lobster's deep commitment to sustainability and how chefs both in Maine and around the world are cooking the sweetest lobster on Earth in an exciting way. And finally, we speak with Kurt Brown. He's a marine biologist, Maine lobsterman, and a pretty great home cook. We'll hear about life on the boats and how he likes to cook with Maine lobster in his own personal way.
1:45Hemo Whaley, welcome to This Is Taste. So great to see you. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. This is going to be a really fun conversation. We're going to talk all about Maine lobster. And, you know, there's so many opportunities to cook with Maine lobster in restaurants and at home. We'll capture all of it. And I just I wanted to have you on because I know you have such a great background with fine dining. And now you're at Strange Delight and you've cooked lobster throughout. Let's talk about Maine lobster. Ham, what's your first memory of eating lobster? So I grew up in Qatar. So it's it's right by the water.
2:21There's a lot of seafood, but we don't really get Maine lobsters out there. The closest thing you see more more slipper lobster. and you tend to split them in half, grill them, eat them with rice. That was kind of my first experience with lobster, just going to a seafood restaurant. There are a lot of seafood restaurants where you just go, like Abu Kheer in Queens. Yeah, in Queens. I love that place. You pick your seafood and then you get rice and bread and tahini and then you eat it all together. But I didn't have my first main lobster until I moved here when I was 19. It took me – I'd say I settled in before splurging out on my first Maine lobster.
3:04It was – I was in New Jersey and I knew I wanted to try my first lobster roll. So I went to my local shop, right? Splurged on the lobster and then did it how everyone else did it, found a recipe that seemed interesting, followed it. And then it was – okay, I'll be honest. It wasn't great. I didn't get the hype because since it was my first time cooking a lobster, I hammered it. You hammered it hard. I hammered it hard. It went a little rory, a little hard, overdone. Exactly. But you kind of want to cook – like you're scared to pull early. Exactly. You're scared to pull early because you're not sure.
3:48The first time cooking a lobster, you're like, oh, I want to make sure this is cooked. Well, really, I think that is a big sign of an inexperienced cook in general is like you're always looking to cook things enough. You're like, oh, I want to make sure my chicken is cooked. Like the juices need to run clear. That bone needs to be white. I want to make sure that I'm cooking my seafood enough. But then as you get more experienced, I feel like it leans more towards what's the least amount that I can cook this and it's good. So it's all about hitting that perfect point of like, oh, I've just cooked this enough where it's delicious.
4:27I think the beauty with lobster, though, even if you do overcook it, if you're putting it in a lobster roll, it's going to be pretty delicious. It's going to be pretty amazing. Yeah. So it was once I hit it with the mayonnaise and the celery and put it in that warm buttered roll, it's like, oh, I get it. This is delicious. Yeah. I mean, when you think about lobster in the restaurant setting, do you have like a memory of Maine lobster being served to you from a chef? Do you have any favorite spots? I'd never been to a fine dining restaurant. There's this one fine dining restaurant in New Brunswick, New Jersey called Frog and the Peach.
5:01And when I first moved here, my first job was with AmeriCorps. One of the places I was stationed at was Elijah's Promise Soup Kitchen, which was a few blocks down from that restaurant in New Brunswick. And I had saved up and I'm like, oh, I'm going to have my first fine dining experience. I studied the menu online and they had a few things that I knew I wanted to try. It was the first time I tried foie gras, which was at this restaurant. and the first time I had perfectly cooked Maine lobster. It was done very simply. I believe it was, they did it two ways. They had the claws in a salad and then the tail was kind of garnished with some squashy things and some sauce things.
5:47And it was, it's like, oh. And then it's like a light bulb went off. It's like, oh, now I get why this is such a coveted, prized ingredient in this fine dining world because it's – you can – with the right technique, you can turn this thing that's already delicious. Like you said, like whether you overcook it or – it's very hard to make a lobster not tasty. But when you treat it with impeccable technique, then it becomes really transcendental. Ham, just in general, why do you like cooking with lobster? Why do you – either at home or at Strange Delight, what draws you to cooking with lobster? I like cooking with lobster because it really showcases technique in order to prepare it in that amazing, fantastic, mind-blowing way where people will take a bite and be like, wow, this is lobster.
6:41It's technique and it's care. It's knowledge. It's a really – basically it's a really fun flex to cook lobster really well. That doesn't necessarily mean that the only way you can enjoy lobster is with so much technique. Like it isn't – it feels like it's something that could be super intimidating. But really once you know some basics, it isn't. Yeah, we'll get to your home cooking adventures. Maine Lobster sent you a box. Yes. And we'll get to that. But I want to just talk about you as a professional chef. You know, you have this wild resume. WD50 in Cortana, New York, Inc. in Los Angeles. You worked at Empire on Cocina as the CDC.
7:22Love that place. So, Anne, when you're building your career, what's the strategy? Because you have all these incredible experiences. There had to be some kind of line that you were drawing. When it came with my career, I kind of, at first, that changed as I stayed in the career. So when I first moved here and I knew I wanted to get into the culinary world, I was really focused on hyper fine dining, like that almost militaristic kitchen environment. That's what I wanted. I wanted the discipline. I wanted the structure. I wanted to spend eight hours meticulously cleaning lobster or picking like the prettiest plushes of Sherville.
8:09I wanted to do these really complex technical things that you couldn't learn out of a cookbook, that you couldn't really learn watching Emeril or Yan Kang cook on TV, things that you had to be in this world to learn and perfect. My hot take is I believe that everybody, whether you're in food or not or have any interest in food or not, should spend at least a year working in a restaurant. Either front or back of house. You learn a lot of life skills. You learn the importance of punctuality, the importance of hospitality, the importance of systems. There's just a lot of basic things that apply to your real life that you can – that you really learn in a restaurant because it's really important.
9:00And you learn how to work in a team. So you learn all these things. And so at first I felt when I was like young and I had this idea in my head that, oh, I want to be a real chef. So the only way to be a real chef is to be in fine dining. Michelins. Yeah, it was all about. I was very much a Michelin hunter as a young cook. And as I spent time in Michelin kitchens, you start to realize that, yes, there are a lot of useful skills that you can learn here. But the culinary world is a lot bigger than that because you are really serving in Michelin kitchens a sliver of society. And then it's easy to ignore that.
9:42I mean restaurants are for everyone. There are different tiered restaurants. There are different levels of clientele. They're different groups of clientele. And I – this is my only hobby, like cooking and food. I read about it. I watch TV about it. It's when I'm not working in the restaurant, I'm thinking about dishes, eating at home. My life is very food-centric. Yeah, it's also like a great simplification. You don't have like distractions. Exactly. You have like a real passion for this. Yeah. So after I went past that Michelin phase, then I started working in all different kinds of restaurants.
10:26And then that's when I feel like I really blossomed as a chef and a manager and just – as soon as I embraced those other forms of cooking. Home cooking as well, like for – because developing a dish for a Michelin restaurant is different than developing a dish for a fine dining restaurant, which is different than a casual restaurant, which is different than a fast casual restaurant, which is different than developing a recipe for a home cook. So all these different categories, I'm very grateful to have been able to work in all of these different types of restaurants because you learn different things in all these different spaces.
11:06Like developing dishes for Ando was the Momofuku delivery service is different than developing a dish for Mpeon Cocina, which is completely different than developing a dish for a New York Times cooking home cook. Very, very cool way to lay out your career. Let's talk about how Maine Lobster works into some of these restaurants, like at Corton, for example, versus at Inc., which I went to and liked. It was a cool experience when that was rolling. It's a strange delight. How is Maine Lobster showing up on these menus? I think there's a lot of very fun things that people can do with Maine lobster.
11:45I think the two dishes come up in my career when I think about, oh, what are the coolest things that I've done with Maine lobster? At WD-50, Wiley had a contact in Maine that could mechanically extract the leg meat from the lobsters. So if you picture a lobster, you have the claws. I'm not talking about the claws. I'm talking about the really skinny legs that the lobster – that are attached to the lobster. And a lot of the times you don't even think about that because there's really no way to extract it cleanly. So we would do things with those lobster legs. And they are so delicious, mainly because of their – they have this really delicate, almost silken texture of a really – of yeah it's it's it's it's so so tasty seafood is like almost like a custard it's almost like a custard yeah it's almost like a lobstery custard i know and when you have like a pile of it and you have you put like two three of those legs in your mouth it just really it almost melts and then uh that was paired with a banana kimchi which was you got a little fermenty a little sweet a little spicy and brussel sprouts it was by wd50 standards a fairly simple dish but it didn't need much else because those lobster legs were the star and i think that's like a common that's a common theme when you have great main lobster yeah you don't need to do that much to it which is why it is it's such a special ingredient it's just because a lot of the times it's it's about oh what can i do I want to do more.
13:26I can do this, Garn. But it's like lobster, even at the fanciest of places, usually is prepared quite simply. That's why you just don't see fried lobster. Exactly. It's like you don't want it. You don't even want that batter. You just want the lobster. Which is why it's such a unique and such a grail. And it's not because of its fancy subtext. It's because it's like one of these rare proteins that you just don't have to touch. You don't. It has a great – there are different notes. It has a really nice subtle flavor. Oh, yeah. It's – and an extremely unique flavor. It's not shrimpy. It's not crabby.
14:04It's lobster. Yeah, I think of a pronounced sweetness. Yes. You know, not like a whiff of fishiness. Yeah. But also the texture of the meat is unique as well. Yeah, exactly. It has a mouthfeel that's very unique. It's not like a cod or a halibut different. And throughout the – like the claw meat is completely different than the tail meat. And you get a different flavor when you make a stock out of the heads. So you can get so many different nuances throughout one lobster. How much lobster stock have you made in your life? A lot. I made a lot of lobster stock. It's my favorite of the sea stock.
14:42So I like it more than a shrimp stock, more than a fish stock just because of that pronounced sweetness. There's that really nice, delicate sweetness that tastes so, so good with seafood in general. What's another example in your career that you've spotted Maine lobster on the menu or cooked with it? At Empeon Cocina, we had this tortilla cheese queso fundido with lobster. Yeah. And it had a, like, fried tomato sauce, a tomate frito, and something called col. So it's – which is almost bechamel-y, but instead of a roux, you thicken it with masa. So you got the sweet lobster with that cheese and then that acidity from the fried tomato and extra richness from that coal sauce.
15:28And it just came together in a tortilla as the best lobster quesadilla that you've ever had. It was perfect. Amazing. It was like one of those things where you just when it's at the pass, you're like, oh, let me taste. Let me taste a little bit. Make sure it's right. And then you're like, I think I need another spoonful just to make sure it's right. You know, the chef is CDC is doing that. Yeah. What about it? Yeah. What about Strange Delight? Strange Delight. We've done a few fun things with lobster. I think my favorite one was we did kind of our take on the classic lobster Thermidor. I, with Strange Delight, we really like finding these, going through these old cookbooks that we found while we were exploring New Orleans.
16:13And I just really like finding an old traditional, like old traditional recipes that people might think is really passé these days. Or it's like, oh, that's something that you'd find at Red Lobster and then kind of reinventing it for modern times. And that usually means you make it a little lighter, like don't cover it in so much sauce. So we took the classic lobster Thermidor, broke everything down into its own parts, and then made a combo. Instead of making this like really heavy bechamel, we kind of leaned into more of an etouffee type vibe with a lobster stock and a really dark roux. That's really fun.
16:59And really perfectly cooked lobster and a really flavorful, punchy lobster-based sauce, like we were talking about at Le Cuckoo, is all you need most of the time. So Maine Lobster, they were cool enough, the folks there, to send you a box of lobsters to your home. And the challenge was, how do you cook with lobster at home in your home kitchen and really not think of it from a professional point of view but from a home cook's point of view? What did you end up making? I like to cook my lobster whether I'm at work or at home in a certain way. Depending on how much effort you're looking to put, you can definitely cook your lobster whole, take it out, and then break it down in the parts that you want.
17:45But I actually like the claws and the tail cooked separately because then I can really control the – because the claws need to cook longer than the tail. Yeah. So it's kind of that roast chicken. Is it better to cook the chicken whole? Or what's the best technique to cook the chicken whole? Because the dark meat and the white meat cook at different rates and need different temperatures to be perfect. So I like to take the claws off. I cook those for three minutes. And then I take the tail off and I cook that for two and a half minutes. In like a hard boil? In a hard boil. Hard boiled, seasoned water with aromatics, a little bit of wine, some black pepper, some bay leaf.
18:25Interesting. So aromatics in the stock, in the pot is important. In the pot, yes. Because if you're poaching something in a liquid, it always helps to throw in a little bit of flavor. Very, very cool. Because just no matter what, there's going to be some intermingling. And if that water has a little bit of seasoning to it, it always helps. That's great. Just like playing it safe. Yeah, just playing it safe. Yeah, smart. So I take that, take them out of the shell. When I cook my tails, I actually put skewers into the tail just to keep them straight so they don't curl up. And then with the lobster heads, see, this is the great thing with lobster.
19:04You can easily use every single part of it, and you can really get good bang for your buck. So the heads, I like to clean, and then I made a really intense lobster stock out of them, reduced that down. And actually, since we had just eaten at Lake Huku, I made a sauce American out of that. Inspo. Yeah. Because I really wanted to eat it again. Yeah. Even though it's been it's funny. It's been probably I haven't had a sauce American since I was at culinary school. And then I which I think is an underrated way to cook lobster. I actually grilled it on the skewers. So lobster is such a fun, subtle flavor that when you – it doesn't take a lot of grilling to get smoke flavor into it.
19:50So once you get a little smoke, it really plays off the sweetness well. Yeah. And since your lobster is – the reason I cook the lobster tails for two minutes is that it's enough to take the lobster tail out, but it's not fully, fully cooked. so you can skewer it, pop it on the grill, and it'll cook really, really quickly, but you're not going to overcook it because you have that buffer. So that's my favorite way to do grilled lobster is just undercook it a bit and finish cooking it on the grill. With the sauce American. Yeah, so we had grilled lobster with sauce American on top. And what would be good if we weren't ambitious to do the sauce American?
20:32Oh, you can really just have grilled lobster with, like you can make a fun mayo or aioli. Yeah, like that. Because lobster and mayonnaise is a match made in heaven. Like it's as good, dare I say, as butter. Those are like I'm as into dipping my lobster into butter as I am into mayo. How do you store your lobsters or handle your lobsters, I guess? Like how do you – because you're getting that box directly from Maine. Yeah. And like some folks who may be listening – and I know many are going to be wanting to order some lobsters this summer. But what do you – how do you handle it? How do you deal with it?
21:10Well, you want to keep them alive until right before you're about to cook them. So what I do is I empty out my crisper drawer because I have a small New York fridge. I empty out my crisper drawer, line it with paper towels, put a Ziploc bag filled with ice at the bottom of it, and then just put the lobsters right on top. And then they're good for a couple of days in that crisper box. until you're ready to use them. Yeah. And they keep for a long time. They're safe. You don't have to worry about them getting on your lettuce. Yeah. Yeah, because they're contained in that drawer. Have you been to Maine?
21:51I have never been to Maine. Okay. I really want to go. And the current chef at Strange Delight right now, Kevin Dragon, actually spent a good amount of time in Maine. And he worked at a brewery up there. Fun. And worked a lot with Maine lobsters. and he keeps trying to tell me that I need to go, that there's a lot of amazing, amazing food out there. And it's like a really nice, it's a really beautiful scene. Well, later in the episode, we're going to hear from Luke Pineson who spent some time up in Maine and he's going to share some tips. Oh, nice. Some Maine tips? Some Maine tips and getting on some boats and all sorts of fun stuff like that.
22:30Ham, I just, I love this conversation and just close with a general thought about the way lobster can be used in such a versatile way? Because I think we still may think of it as a luxury ingredient, but pound for pound, there's great value there and there's great versatility there. There is. So the great thing with lobster is that they are incredibly easy to cook. You don't need to do much to them. If you're not an experienced cook, that doesn't disqualify you from lobsters at all either. All you need is a pot that will fit your lobster, fill it with boiling water, hit it with some salt, chuck your lobster in there.
23:13If you're doing a whole lobster, you'd want to cook it for around five minutes. And then once you take the meat out of the shell, which there are a lot of both, there are a lot of easy ways to do that. Your best friend with that, if you're an inexperienced cook, is a pair of kitchen shears. Because when in doubt, just go in, cut the shell off the meat. it'll be fine. It's not a big deal. Just make sure you're holding a towel when you're handling the lobster because the shells can have little pointy bits that you don't want to hurt yourself on. But if you've got a towel and a pair of kitchen shears, anybody can clean a lobster.
23:50And what's great, it's a great meat to have cooked and ready to go in your fridge because you can just pop it on top of a salad for some good healthy protein and it will be one of the best salads that you've made just because it's so great with light, crisp flavors. So I know in a lot of traditional French cooking, you think of a lot of butter with your lobster, a lot of heavy sauces, a lot of things of that nature. But it doesn't need to be that. You can make a lobster light and simply dress and it'll be just as delicious as anything else that you can put on a salad. Emma Waley, this has been such a pleasure.
24:31Thank you so much for joining This is taste. Thanks for having me.
24:37Luke Pineson, welcome to This Is Taste. How are you, my friend? I'm good. Good to be here. You just got back from Maine. You were reporting a story for Taste about Maine lobster from all angles. So let me ask you about the chefs of Maine and how they're using lobster in creative ways. I know you love restaurants. You write about restaurants a lot. So you probably saw some things that excited you. Yeah. So well, so the CDC at Eventide is a guy named Jared Lehman Farley. He has been with them since I think 2017 or so, so a pretty long time, and he's a Mainer. This is something you find across the board in Maine.
25:12I feel like so many of the executive chefs, chefs de cuisine, most people working in kitchens are Mainers. I mean, there's been a lot of folks who have been moving to Maine recently, but everyone I spoke to was a Mainer, a proud Mainer, I should say. And yeah, Eventide is a spot that uses lobster really creatively. You definitely see it more often in the more tried and true permutations, the whole steam lobster, lobster rolls or whatever. Even Tide does a riff on the lobster roll that's served in like a bao, basically. It is a Chinese bao dough. And then it almost ends up being kind of a cross between that and an Italian tramezzino or a crustless white bread type of thing.
25:49Yeah, totally love that. And the lobster meat is heated up gently in super nutty brown butter that they add extra milk solids to to give it extra umami which is kind of a cool trick um i'm sure that's like their best seller and it's really popular it's rich but it's super delicious and they also do a green curry lobster stew which is pretty creative um and it's like a gentler green curry flavor it's not super overpowering and that's that's great um another chef i want to shout out is hannah rider at a restaurant called 12 which is a fine dining spot. They do a, I mean, you can order a la carte, but it's primarily prefix.
26:28They're in like a historic brick building by the waterfront. They opened in 2023, I want to say, maybe 2022. This is in Portland too. Yeah. The founding chef, I think, is a 11 Madison Park alum. He's still involved, but this young woman, Hannah, became the executive chef recently. She worked at Aquavit, a restaurant that we always love to see in the pedigrees of chefs. Definitely. And Cafe Boulud and some other places in the city. They do a riff on a lobster roll that's in puff pastry. Cool, cool idea. That's very beloved in the city. And then I just ate this great dish that was like, it was kind of like a roulade of a cod loin that had been poached in butter.
27:09And then I don't know how they did this, but they did a really hard sear on it. It had this great crust, which is for cod, that's pretty rare. And it was served in a light lobster bisque type sauce with saffron. And saffron and lobster work so well together. You've seen it a lot over time, that pairing. Yeah. And it's interesting with that sweet main lobster meat that's iconic and then saffron. It's like because there's sweetness in the saffron too. So they pair in that way. They're not clashing. It's like the color is beautiful. Yes. Especially when you're doing like a lobster stock like for the bisque and it has that all the nice shell flavor and color in it.
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27:50And then there's also like the historical, I don't know, saffron being a luxury ingredient. Lobster wasn't always, but now being a luxury ingredient, the two of them together really makes sense. I love that. Well, let's zoom out a moment. I just want to know from your reporting for our piece on taste, what makes Maine lobster so unique as a food and all the foods in the world? Because I think lobster is iconic. It's singular. As you expressed, it's used in many different styles of cooking. but also there's just the steamed lobster too and that has its own merit yeah so i mean i got a real master class in this and you know i should say and you know this i'm from massachusetts like i thought i kind of knew my stuff lobster wise um and they they really schooled me i had a lot and i had a lot to learn you were on the boats i was on the boats i was at the dealers the processors Lobsters, yeah, and I guess the main thing, the main thing.
28:49The main thing, you just give in a tagline. Right? The main thing is the Maine lobster. I love it. So a lot of the lobster in Maine is caught in like July and August. The season was starting up when I was up there in mid-June. And at that time, lobsters are molting. They're shedding their hard shells, and they are becoming what in the industry is called new shell lobsters. And new shell lobsters are, you know, the bulk of the catch in Maine. And they are prized for having sweeter, more tender meat. That's that, like, iconic Maine lobster flavor that we recognize. Some of that comes from they haven't fully grown into their new shells yet.
29:31So there's, like, some ocean water can get in there and fill the gaps. And it's almost, like, seasoning the meat in a way. If you think about it, like, when it's grown into the full hard shell, the meat is like pushing right up against the shell it can get like a little tougher not like significantly but yeah lobster connoisseurs know the difference and um there's less less room for it to move around i don't know you get heavier lobsters um but you catch fewer of them because those are during the less kind of busy lobster seasons you you catch more during the new shell seasons so it makes up for the you know them being kind of lighter poundage wise it's a really interesting point about this new shell and this innate seasoning from the seawater because i think we want our lobster to have that sweetness that's iconic but also the salinity is what we love it too and then yeah some folks describe the flavor of the hard shell lobsters to me as being more like lobster forward and i think i don't know what in this context i would say i read that as being like kind of generic lobster you know what i mean not that not the same nuanced sweetness that you get from the new shell um and then i guess the other thing to really highlight about the industry in maine is that their conservation efforts and their focus on sustainability has led to such a like robust population and such exponential growth in the population, it's really helped the industry maintain its strong standing, both domestically and around the world.
31:09And I didn't even realize that when I was a kid in the 90s, the lobster hauls were like a third of what they are now. Wow. That's not the common. It's usually the reverse. Yeah. A lot of that has to do with the sustainability measures. So size limits, trap limits and then also notching the tails of fertile female lobsters which is actually a practice they told me they've been doing since like the late 19th century which is crazy but protecting the fertile females making sure they're not harvested and they can continue to breed so they notch it and they throw it back and they throw it back and they throw back the smaller lobsters and they also throw back the bigger lobsters and other uh other lobster industries don't have the same kinds of regulations what's it like on the boats what's the vibe like i mean it sounds like you're you're in this three-month season it's gotta be really busy yeah i mean i should i should be clear that i wasn't out on like a deadliest catch type of type of situation perfect storm vibe um i went out on a boat operated by a company called lucky catch and they they're out of portland they take tourists out um but they have a commercial license and they have traps out in Casco Bay.
32:18So you can learn about, you know, what goes into baiting and setting traps and then hauling them. And then, you know, everything that goes into getting them out of the water and then back to the wharf and eventually to a dealer or processor or restaurants or wherever else. So the vibe on that boat is pretty, pretty chill. I learned a lot. You learned a lot. Yeah, clearly. Well, you grew up in Massachusetts, as you mentioned, and you've been going to Maine your whole life. Tell me about the difference between lobster culture in Portland, in the city that we know we fly into, and then mid-coast and further north.
32:50Yeah. Well, so Portland is really, you know, it's kind of, it's the economic center. It's the more metropolitan city. And on the working waterfront in Portland, that's where the big dealers and processors are located. And I visited one of those facilities, Ready Seafood. And they've got, you know, just miles of tanks, it seems like. Huge. I mean, tens of thousands of pounds of live lobsters that are awaiting their fate, whether it's, you know, Eventide even, or like Dubai or China or, you know, other markets around the world. But as you go further north up the coast, it's these small fishing communities where it really seems like if folks aren't involved, you know, personally in the lobstering industry, they know somebody who is.
33:37And it really seems to touch, like, every part of local life. The way somebody up there put it to me is like maybe you're not in a lobstering family. Maybe you're not a lobster person yourself. But if you own a cafe, you know, you're serving lobstermen. If you own any business, like your customers are lobstermen, your neighbors are lobstermen. It's really like palpable. What a cool element to report on for your piece. I really I love this insight because I think a lot of writing only covers Portland restaurants and Eventide, which is a great place. It's good to get out of Portland. A lot of folks were talking to me about how since the pandemic specifically, they've noticed a rise in tourism north of Portland.
34:17Cool. And I can even speak to that. Like my first trip with my wife coming out of the pandemic was to Maine, a state that I've been to tons of times. But I had never spent a lot of time north of Portland. Like my summer camp took us on a, took us sea kayaking in Acadia when I was like, you know, 11 or something. Yeah. But yeah, I had never gone up as an adult and we went up, drove up Route 1 in the mid coast, stopped at some lobster shacks, saw a fish ladder, all these things that like. So cool. And coming out of the pandemic, there was more of that focus on like what are the hidden treasures and places we thought we knew well, but, you know, realized there's more to discover.
34:56Well said, Luke. Yeah. So the best lobster roll in Maine, this this idea is debated from out of town food writers to, you know, local Mainers at the pub, perhaps talking about the local products. Did you did you discover a favorite lobster roll? Yeah, I don't I hesitate to pick favorites because I a lot of good lobster roll. Yeah, everybody's doing their their thing. And it's, you know, worth celebrating each for its for its own merits. It's I've developed my own opinions about over over the span of my life over what I you know, what I think is a great lobster roll. And I'll say I'm not I'm not eating lobster rolls like 10 times over the summer.
35:34I'm like a two to three times per season lobster roll consumer. You pick your spots. Yeah. And I have you know, I'm more I spend more time on Cape Cod, as you know, and I have my spots there. It's a different vibe there than in Maine. I think so for me the number one important thing is is it picked meat or is it lobster salad meaning has it been mixed with mayo or is there just a little bit of mayo slicked on the bun and we're not going to bother talking about Connecticut and melted butter those have no place in this conversation so for me the ideal lobster roll is just lobster meat on a buttered toasted split top hot dog bun split top is important, that's a New England thing when I moved to New York and started seeing buns that were, I don't even know how to describe them.
36:20Sandwich-like? I'm shuddering to even, yeah. But all that being said, I think my favorite one in the state of Maine, and this has been true, I went on this trip, but I have been going my whole life to a place in Kennebunkport, Maine, called the Clam Shack, perhaps counterintuitively, and they served their lobster roll on a hamburger bun. Oh, okay. Which is, you know, people loved it, but whatever. It's not that crazy when you think about it, and you get better distribution of meat to bread. He does toast it, so it's got that nice buttery, you know, toasty flavor that you want. And then it's just a little slick of mayo, and it's beautiful.
36:55Five ounces of perfect fresh lobster meat that was caught like that morning from that ocean that you can basically see out the window. And he steams it in seawater. So for me, that's the other really important thing. That seasons the meat, and it's got this sweet, salty thing going on that is just like, I'm still thinking about it right now. And like I said, I'm not like crazy about lobster rolls. And this lobster roll that I ate last week, I'm like dying to get back and have another this season. Well, my pick, I don't know lobster rolls in Maine that well. I've been a couple times to Maine, but I really enjoyed my visit to Ken's place in Scarborough.
37:33I loved it. It's an order at the counter kind of place. I believe they were doing split top style. and to me it was just like the main vibe than anything and I know the lobster from Maine was was speaking to me that day it was very fresh I'll add that to my list I'll shout out a couple more McLoons in South Thomaston or more specifically on Spruce Head Island off of South Thomaston that's up in the midcoast and Kenny Bunkport I should say where the clam shack is is southern Maine so that's closer to the the border of New Hampshire and Massachusetts but McLoons is on a working lobster wharf and it's family family owned they own the wharf too so the fishermen sell directly to the wharf which you can see from the restaurant and then the lobster comes straight straight there their rolls are on a traditional split up hot dog bun but it's toasted in cabot butter cabot salted butter so it's good stuff yeah and clam shack they use kate's the main butter so that's really good stuff too um i think it was four ounces of meat at mccloons and the same deal not lobster salad, just delicious, perfectly cooked meat, a little slick of mayo.
38:41And then I'll shout them out specifically because they do coleslaw on the side that includes celery seed. And that's how my mom made coleslaw growing up. So I really appreciate that. I like that note about the coleslaw. We could do a pothole on coleslaw styles. Lobster rolls, you know, you need a little something on the side. And coleslaw is great. And then they were serving Cape Cod chips. And I'll say Maine has some good homegrown chip companies. But as a Massachusetts guy, I'm happy to see that. You ride from Cape Cod. I do. We just had Ham on, and he had some great insights about cooking with Maine lobster in his career and throughout the world of food.
39:16And I'd love to get your take, Luke, about where you've seen Maine lobster used outside of Maine in restaurants, maybe New York where you live, or just in your travels. Yeah. Well, so here in the city, I think anywhere that's like a real seafood specialist is a good place to look for Maine lobster. I know Penny's got it on the menu right now. I have a feeling that the lobster at La Bernadette is coming straight from Maine. I know that. I believe so, yeah. And that's obviously not somewhere everyone can go to often, but I've heard they do a lobster roll and the lounge there. They do. I've had it.
39:50It's great. And I forgot about that one. That's a great call. Yeah. It's a good lobster roll right there. In my hometown of Boston, where I always take people for seafood, is a place called Row 34 that used to be partially owned by the Island Creek, oysters folks um but even they get their lobster from maine um one of the chef owners jeremy sewell i think it's his cousin or something is a lobster man out of york maine and southern maine so all their lobsters coming from there and uh that yeah it's a really really good spot did you learn anything that you didn't know about lobster you can't you came in with quite a a base of knowledge but was there something that really surprised you during this reporting trip yeah Yeah, no, well, I mean, like I said, my base of knowledge was not as expansive as I might have thought it was.
40:35And this even just learning the gulf between literally gulf, but also the gulf in numbers between the mass industry and the main industry was surprising to me. I didn't realize how much bigger in terms of millions of pounds the main harvest is each year. And it hovers around the million, hundred million, excuse me, pounds for some remark. Yeah. I didn't know the extent of the sustainability measures. And I didn't, I don't know, being out on the boat, catching a fertile female, seeing the eggs, which was really cool, watching them notch the tail, watching them throw back the smaller lobsters. It's like actually seeing sustainability and conservation in practice.
41:17And as food writers, we read about that stuff and we write about it sometimes. We hear about it in interviews. But to actually see it up close, like on the boat, was pretty eye-opening for me and different than, I guess, what I thought was going on in the boats, which was more of a, you know, dangerous catch. Yeah, they're doing the real conservation work and preservation work as well as, you know, putting their life on the line. Well, Luke Pineson, thank you so much for telling us all about Maine Lobster. Thank you. It was a pleasure to big up New England.
41:52Kurt Brown, welcome to This Is Taste. I'm really excited to speak with you. Oh, it's so great to be here. Thank you for having me. Well, tell me, like, what's today like? I mean, we're recording this pretty early in the morning. You're a lobsterman. You're a marine biologist. You've got an incredible background. We're going to get all into your life. But, like, what's the morning been like? Oh, well, it's morning for some people. This is about lunchtime for a lobsterman. We're about halfway through our day normally at this point in time. But today I find myself on dry land. We have a lot of wind today.
42:21It's a very windy day. And then on top of that, it is thick of fog. So it is very foggy here today, which means I can barely see the length of a football field, which makes it a little bit challenging out on the water. So with the wind and the fog, today is a dry land day. And that is in stark contrast to what we were looking out on the water yesterday when it was beautiful, no wind, flat calm, and about 90 degrees. So any given day here in lobster land up in Maine can be very, very different. Wow. Well, for the record, we're recording this at 9 a.m. So if it's lunch at 9 a.m., it's an early rise for you all.
42:59Absolutely. So my day typically starts, I meet my helper in the morning around 4, 4.15, and we are out on the water by 4.30, five o 'clock every morning when we go lobster. Amazing. Kurt, what's the season been like this year? And, you know, the weather, of course, plays a great role in how you can, you know, fish lobster. But tell me just what it's been like. We had a march that seemed to last right up until mid-June this year. It was rainy and foggy and raw all spring long. I think we set a record for the most weekends in a row with torrential rain. And lobsters are cold-blooded critters. So they wait for the water to warm up in the spring and early summer to move around.
43:45So we're playing a little bit of catch up, but the last week or so landings or catches of lobster here off the coast of Maine have really picked up as we've got into warmer weather of the summer. So, so far so good. And we're looking for more to come as we move through August, September, and into the fall. Amazing. Well, let's let our listeners know a little bit about your day-to-day because I know you're a marine biologist. You speak on behalf of Maine Lobster. And I just like to know what it's like when you're out on the boats. What's that like? Oh, it's amazing. So two days ago, I was out on my boat working on a collaborative research project with scientists from the University of Maine.
44:28This is a really amazing project that we've been working on for 10 years now. And it looks at like the early life stages of the lobster population when they're about the size of your thumbnail. So we kind of keep our finger on the pulse of the resource out off the coast of Maine, because this is a wild caught fishery. We want to know what's coming down the pipeline years in advance. So we do this survey with you, Maine, and we were out two days ago doing that. And it was just another amazing summer day, flat calm, lots of fun science going on. And we saw, geez, we saw sunfish, we saw all kinds of jellyfish, we saw a good amount of baby lobsters.
45:06So it was a really amazing day from a science perspective, but it was lobstering as a kid that really sparked my interest in marine biology. I started lobstering when I was about eight years old and seeing traps come up out of the water really sparked my interest in what was going on under the ocean surface. So I get to combine my love of lobstering now with my love of marine biology. And it just, it makes for a fun career for sure. I bet. I bet. And really, I just hear the passion and I hear it all right there. So earlier in the episode, Luke told us about the sustainability efforts in Maine and it's really impressive.
45:46As a marine biologist, how are you personally working to maintain a healthy aquaculture in Maine? Yeah, so we have a wild caught fishery off the coast of Maine for lobster, which means we rely on the whims of Mother Nature for our success or our failure. Basically, if we don't take good care of the lobster resource off the coast of Maine, then we don't have a future as an industry. And I think if you were to ask any harvester up and down the coast what they're most proud of, they would say that they're proud of how we take care of our resource, how we manage it. It's common sense rules that protect Maine's lobster fishery.
46:24If a lobster is too small, we throw it back. If a lobster is too big, we put it back because those are the breeders. Egg-bearing females have to go back. Before we put them back in the water, we have to notch one of their tail flippers that signifies she's a proven breeder. So even if she's caught again without eggs, she's illegal to keep. So those are the rules that are in place that do a good job protecting the resource. From a marine biologist perspective, kind of my role is to make sure those rules are working. So I talked about our research collaboration with the University of Maine. That's now a 10-year time series showing that baby lobster populations up and down the coast of Maine are doing very well.
47:07The last two years have actually been our best years in terms of the number of baby lobsters that we found in our surveys. Maine's Department of Marine resources. The state agency tasked with managing the resource does a swath of monitoring programs at different life stages. So we can keep our finger on the pulse of what's coming down the pipeline and know if things are going well or if things are not going well and manage accordingly. But it seems like the rules that are in place are working well. We have a healthy resource, a sustainable fishery, and that bodes very well for the future, which is key.
47:45Wonderful to hear that. And I just think you've painted a picture of effort. I mean, just thinking about every lobster that we consume, there's been hands on it. You're measuring, you're checking it. And it's incredible. This is not the case with all aquaculture and harvesting in our world of seafood. I mean, tell me about just what it's like to actually do that work, pulling out the traps and getting this measuring stick out. Yeah, 100%. So you could have the best rules in the world in any fishery. And if those rules aren't followed, then you don't have a sustainable resource. So it really speaks to the compliance level of the individuals in this fishery that we have such a healthy resource.
48:30So the only way you can legally harvest a lobster off the coast of Maine is with a trap. So harvesters all along Maine's 3 ,000 or 4 ,000 miles of coastline, actually more coastline than California. if you can believe that with all the islands and peninsulas here in Maine, leave every morning, they haul their traps. Every trap that comes up comes up with lobsters, crabs, fish. Crabs and fish go back into the ocean alive. That's the beauty of a trap fishery is everything comes up alive. All the lobsters then get measured. We have a gauge that we have to measure every single lobster with. And there are days where I'm throwing 50 % to 75 % of the lobsters that come up in my traps back overboard.
49:12because they're either too small or the females have eggs or sometimes they're even too big, like five, six, seven pound lobsters. I even caught a 20 pound lobster in one of my traps one time. And yeah, that was a scary one. Its claw was bigger than my head, but those are the breeders. So a lobster that size, a female lobster that size, a big one like that can produce over 100 ,000 eggs every year. So it's a little tricky to throw the equivalent of a couple hundred dollar bills back in the ocean, but that's the future of our fishery right there. And that's why everybody does it. So every lobster gets measured.
49:48A lot of them go back into the ocean. I always say, see you next year when I throw the smaller ones back. But that gives them a chance to reproduce and produce more baby lobsters before they get caught, which is the idea. Incredible. it's it's such a fascinating uh industry and and the labor i mean you guys you guys work i mean what is your what's your hours like like when you're in season how many hours you work in a day yeah so we're right in peak lobster season right now so like i said uh i'll meet my helper four four fifteen in the morning we're usually hauling traps by five we crank from like five till like i said about nine in the morning and that's when we'll hammer down lunch real quick and then we'll keep going till one or two in the afternoon.
50:35And a lot of it depends on weather. If it's windy and choppy and rough, things take a little bit longer. Imagine you're sitting at your podcast desk and all of a sudden the wind picks up and things start rocking and rolling. It's going to make things a little bit more challenging, right? So we just kind of have to deal with what mother nature gives us. And yeah, we'll haul traps usually till two or three in the afternoon, especially during the summertime. We get a summer breeze that really picks up in the afternoon and makes things a little challenging. It's why we get out early. We want to get off the water early in the afternoon to beat that wind.
51:11Sometimes that works, sometimes that doesn't. But yeah, usually it's about 4, 4.30 in the morning till 3, 3.30 in the afternoon and then regroup and get ready for the next day and do it all over again. Amazing. Well, you talk about hammering down lunch. I want I talk a little bit about that meal. I'm really curious what you eat on a boat when you're hammering down lunch. But also, you know, Kurt, tell me about how you like to cook Maine lobster, how much you eat Maine lobster, and your excitement for the restaurant scene, and how lobsters is such an exciting product to cook with. Oh, yeah, definitely.
51:47So real quick, my favorite lunch on the boat is pretty low end. I don't eat peanut butter and jelly on land, but there's nothing better than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the boat for lunch. And that's just, I don't know, that's something I've been doing since I was probably 10 years old. But once I get off the boat and back on dry land, there is nothing better than lobster. I'll probably eat lobster this time of year, four or five times a week, no joke. It's such a simple, delicious meal to prepare. If you can boil water, you can enjoy lobster. It's really that simple. I'm no chef, but lobster is something I can do over and over and over again.
52:27It's funny. I bumped into a friend two days ago and they said, oh, we went out to Luke's lobster and had a lobster roll and it was so good. And we figured we'd try it at home. And they said, and it was so easy. I couldn't believe how easy it was. You just steam the lobster, put it in a bun with a little butter and it was the most amazing meal. So I think that's lost on a lot of folks is just how simple lobster can be to enjoy, whether it's steamed or boiled or in a roll, Maine style or Connecticut. Those are really easy go-tos that will make your week. A lot of people make their year to have lobster like that.
53:07It's such a celebration food. But for me, when I get off the boat at the end of the day, it's much easier to bring some lobster home than to stop at the grocery store and get all kinds of dirty looks from folks because I smell so bad after a day out on the boat. But I love getting creative with lobster. When you're eating it as much as I do and our family does, you have to get creative. We'll throw lobsters in some hot oil and one of those nice Goya empanada rolls and do lobster empanadas. Grilled lobster tails are about as simple as it gets, but you can get creative with some honey butter or some dill right on there.
53:47And within 10 minutes, you have a delicious meal of grilled lobster tails. That's just going to be a crowd pleaser, no matter where or when you do it. And if you want to get really fancy, a recipe I learned from one of the great chefs right here in Portland, Maine is you take a little perno, which is almost like an absinthe, heat it up and cast iron, throw some fennel seed in there with a nice little snap, crackle pop, put the raw lobster tails in shell in there, hit it with a little fire and flambe it, reduce that perno down and add some heavy cream and reduce that. You have this delicious perno cream sauce.
54:26And it sounds fancy and it sounds complicated, but it's so simple and it'll blow people away. And if you're not into cooking, then come to Portland, Maine. And the list is long and distinguished of the amazing lobster roll joints that you can eat your way through. It is a culinary scene here, and it never gets old. Oh, I love that technique because you're taking the shell, and you're getting a lot of that flavor when you're doing that flambe with that flame, and then reducing it down with the cream, and then you pull it out and get the meat in there. That's such a cool technique. Love that. You could eat your way through Portland and probably not get through everything amazing in an entire year.
55:08It's turned into such a great lobster and lobster roll city. No doubt. I love Portland. It's one of America's great food cities. And combining it with, of course, this lobster, this mean lobster that's pulled out of the waters fresh. I mean, what a vacation. I mean, come on. Yeah. And I'm fortunate enough to live here. I'm sure I don't appreciate it as much as I should, but you come to Portland right now, and it's just full of people from all over the country and all over the world here to enjoy Maine lobster. I always joke, people don't come to Maine to eat chicken. They're here for the reason.
55:43They wanna see the fishery in action, see how we sustainably harvest the resource and enjoy one of the most delicious, sustainable proteins on the planet. Well, I wanna talk about just buying Maine lobster. And I think with ham, we send a big box. And tell us a little bit about, Kurt, about how our listeners can buy Maine Lobster direct, have a box sent to them and be doing that flambe pretty soon. But you open up your box and you got it right there. Absolutely. So there is no shortage of ways to get either live lobster or cooked and picked lobster meat or lobster tails delivered right to your door.
56:23I mean, you go right on the old internet and type in Maine Lobster Delivery and any number of different options will pop up local and throughout the country. So it's really easy to find what you are looking for. There's a lot of great online delivery services for Maine Lobster. And it's really easy to find. If I named one, I'd have to name them all. And the podcast ain't long enough for that. But know that when you're ordering Maine lobster delivered to your door, you're supporting local harvesters. Every lobster man and woman in Maine is an independent owner operator. There are no vertically integrated businesses, really.
57:04Independent owner operators out off the coast of Maine dealing with 90 degree weather in the summer. And once it gets into December, January and February, we're dealing with 5, 10 degree weather, ice on the decks, frozen hoses. So you're supporting really the cowboys and cowgirls of the East going out on the water every day and fighting the elements and bringing one of the most delicious, sustainable proteins back to shore for everyone to enjoy. I love that. So when you get that box, like, you know, we've ordered already. I mean, I know listening to this episode, plenty of folks have dialed it up.
57:38But when you get that box of your house, how are you handling the lobster? That's a great question. So if you're ordering live lobster, I remember back in the day when we first started sending lobsters around the country, there would be people who would get a box of live lobsters and think the thing to do would be to put them in the bathtub. Don't do that. What you want to do is either leave them in the box if the ice packs are still cold enough and that will keep them chilled or put them right in your refrigerator. The key to keeping a lobster alive until you steam it or boil it is to keep them cool and moist.
58:11So just keep them cool in your refrigerator or right in the box they came in if that's staying cold enough until you're ready to cook them. If you ordered cooked and picked lobster meat that's fresh, put that in your fridge until you're ready to enjoy it. If it's frozen, keep it frozen until a day or so before you're ready to enjoy it. Thaw it out in your fridge and you'll be ready to roll. Like I said, there's no real secrets. It's not that complicated when it comes to lobster. A lot of people are intimidated by seafood generally and lobster specifically, but I can assure you, if I can cook lobster, then anyone listening can cook lobster.
58:47It is that simple, and it will blow your mind if you haven't tried it, how good it is. And it's fun just because you can do it simple, steamed or boiled or in a roll, or you can get really creative with it, too, from a culinary perspective. Well, Kurt Brown, this has been such a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining This Is Taste. Oh, thanks for having me. It's been a privilege. Have a great day.
59:34Logo and guest illustrations by Ellie Skrzat. Visit Taste Online at tastecooking.com and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to keep updated on all cool things in the world of taste.
From the publisher
Today on the show we are talking all about one of the world’s great foods: Maine Lobster, harvested directly from the cold waters of Maine, which give it its unique and sweet taste. First up is a great conversation with Ham El-Waylly. Ham is the chef-owner of the buzzy Brooklyn restaurant Strange Delight, and he tells us how Maine Lobster has been a big part of his culinary career. We talk about how he thinks about cooking with lobster and where he is spotting it on menus around the world. We also sent Ham a box of Maine lobsters to cook with at home. The results were pretty amazing.
Also on the show, we speak with journalist Luke Pyenson. Luke traveled to Maine to report a story for TASTE, and we find out where he went and who he met—and, of course, hear about all the Maine Lobster he ate. We discuss Maine Lobster’s deep commitment to sustainability and how chefs both in Maine and around the world are cooking the sweetest lobster on earth in an exciting way.
Finally we catch up with a Maine lobsterman, Curt Brown. Curt is a marine biologist, and he shares what life is like on a lobster boat as well as how he actually cooks with lobster at home. Curt has some real kitchen skills.
Read: Maine Lobster in Technicolor
This special episode is supported by the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative. Get Maine Lobster delivered directly to your door by visiting lobsterfrommaine.com/how-to-buy.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
