It all started just about three years ago during a trip to Santa Barbara for a family wedding, but the seeds of my betrayal had actually been sown a few years before. I’m not sure where or how I got this craving for Spiny Lobster, especially since I don’t consciously remember ever having eaten one, fresh or frozen, at the time - even though I had traveled to the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. Growing up in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it was the Clawed Lobster - you may know them as members of the family Nephropidae - that I came to love with a passion. They were just ‘lobsters’ to us and for most of my young life frozen tails were all that my mom could afford. They were gleefully enjoyed with freshly cut homemade French fries, usually on special occasions such as New Years Eve. I think that’s why lobster claws have never appealed to me in the least. As an adult, I regularly ordered them in restaurants, including all sorts of classical French and Chinese preparations, but steamed with butter always tasted best. Over time the typical 1-1/2 pound size typically offered in restaurants left me indifferent, and I would only order if I could get one between two to three pounds.
Sometime in 2005 I got it into my head to have live Spiny Lobster, and since you could find dozens of companies on the Internet offering to fly them anywhere in the country for a price, I assumed that there would be companies in California that offered the same with Spiny Lobster. Search as I might, I couldn’t find ‘live’ Spiny Lobsters for sale. I began to doubt that there was a commercial fishery for California Spiny Lobster - the worldwide fishery for clawed lobster is worth over $30 billion annually. In preparation for my trip to Santa Barbara in 2006, I researched seafood restaurants, and I hit pay dirt. The season began in early October, and the Santa Barbara Shellfish Company offered them in season.
The California Spiny Lobster, Panulirus interruptus, is one of 45 members of the Palinuridae family that really aren’t that closely related to clawed lobsters, and as it turns out there is a commercial fishery Point Conception in Santa Barbara County to the U.S.-Mexico border, and off southern California islands and banks from early October through mid-March, most of which had been exported to France and Asia until the dollar went South in a big way a few years ago.
The weather was warm and sunny that Friday as I walked along the beach toward my lunchtime destination at the end of the Pier. Two and a half pounds, grilled with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc was all I remembered saying to my waiter at the counter, and I sat sipping and chewing bread as they prepared my feast. The blanched the lobster in boiling water, split it down the middle and popped it on the grill. It didn’t seem very long before the eye-popping lobster was set in front me with drawn butter, coleslaw and another glass of wine. I don’t know why, but the sweet flavor of the meat surprised me, as did the extra muscles connecting the tail to the head. After finishing one half of the tail, I decided to pull apart the head for what little meat was there, and unlike a Clawed Lobster, it was loaded, with meat in the thick antennae and in all of the leg joints. After finishing the sweet, sweet other half I walked out into the sun more satisfied than I can remember, so satisfied that I returned the next day!
I had assumed that the only way I would be able to get my Spiny Lobster fix in the future was to fly down to visit my relatives every October. With my first Spiny experience still in mind, I bought a 2.2-pound live Clawed Lobster that December for a comparative tasting. I knew something was wrong after I pulled it from my improvised steamer; at that size, the claw shell should have been very hard, usually requiring a hammer, but I was able to peel, yes peel, them open with my bare hands. The claw meat was tasteless and the tail wasn’t much better. I am not sure whether it was a ‘sick’ lobster, or just indicative of some systemic problem with the lobster fishery over the last decade. I know it probably wasn’t a fair comparison, but I haven’t had a Clawed Lobster since.
Early the next summer, I started thinking about traveling down to Santa Barbara for the opening of Spiny Lobster season, and as a lark I searched on it again. Low and behold, not one but two companies were offering to ship live lobsters when the season opened, and I set my calendar. I chose Catalina Offshore Products and ordered the first Sunday evening after the season opened. Tuesday morning my package arrive with two lobsters that weighed more than two pounds each, and they were alive and kicking. The Spiny Lobster's main weapon is also its primary method of escape, the powerful tail muscles. I decided just to pop the first one into some boiling water for a quick lunch, what a mistake - I thought it was going to knock the five gallon pot off the stove with all of its thrashing. The flavor and texture were everything I remember from the year before. I roasted the second lobster in the oven with an even more satisfying result - no flavor loss to the boiling water. Last year I ordered twice, and I was thinking about ordering this year when the package arrive this morning with a belated birthday gift, four Spiny Lobsters, each weighing more than 1-1/4 pound. I steamed one for lunch, and plan to use at least two for sashimi.
Note: As a general proposition, I don't believe in shipping fresh food across the country since it is not really sustainable unless, like Spiny Lobster and Wild Salmon, it is only produced in one place.
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