Maine-ly Food, Part 2: Red Lobsters and Red Tides

While Maine has a big variety of seafood, on my first trip there, I wanted to try what they're famous for to see if it was worth all the blather. I have attempted steaming lobsters that I've bought from my local supermarket in West Virginia, but I think that lobsters are essentially unhappy in the mountains, and thus refused to cook properly out of protest.

So the big deal to me on my virgin launch to Maine was having a steamed lobster. My friend Mary Jane had waited for me to come to Eastport for a lobster dinner since she knew I was anxious for the true Maine culinary experience.

We went to the Seaview campground north of the town (actually there is no "south of town" since Eastport is at the end of a peninsula/island, so if someone tries to send you south of town, they're either not local, or they're locals up to no good), an unlikely place for a steamed lobster I thought; on the camp site was an unassuming restaurant for the campers, who got a deal on dinners. Note that behind the bar in the restaurant is a sign that says Bourbon Street. As possibly the only New Orleanian in Eastport, I felt welcomed.

Mary Jane wanted the biggest lobsters they had (it was her birthday), but on this day the best they could do were three lobsters at 2.2 pounds each. Steamed and served with a pound of melted butter, it was simple but sumptuous. MJ was impressed with my lobster dismantling skills, which included all the meat in the head. Having grown up in New Orleans, my crab picking was pretty honed; lobster heads are very like crab bodies.

I wanted to try some other seafood, but lobster was about all that was safe to eat. This sign on a telephone pole near the water tells the tale:

Such paralytic poisons, caused by what are known as "red tides", are not killed by cooking, have no taste, and can paralyze your breathing in 2 hours. You'd basically become the steamed clam you ate. I happily munched on lobster tails, pondered how a carnivorous whelk tasted, and wondered whether some snails were also meat eaters. This made me rethink the slugs in my garden back home. I only spent a couple of days in Eastport, so I would have to wait for another trip for a comparison of clam chowdah DownEast. Or whatever else was not paralytic. In Part III, more fish tails/tales.