warm lobster rolls or rhode island clam cakes?

So, I will be greedy and hope that someone can help me satisfy my birthday food cravings...

1) warm lobster rolls

It has been several years since I ate an incredible warm lobster roll drizzled with melted butter instead of the traditional cold lobster salad version. I am a convert. The place was in River North, possibly on a corner? Delicious brioche like bun, amazing sweet and lightly fried onion rings, a few pickled veg on the side. Help me. It was crazy expensive for a lobster roll. But I WANT IT.

2) clam cakes

Does anyone from New England (or ideally, Rhode Island) who is now in Chicagoland know if there is anyplace to get authentic clam cakes? Like the ones you can get at Rocky Point in Rhode Island, but which seem to not exist outside of that area? If desperate, I may search from some Conch fritters in a Jamaican restaurant....

Thank you!

donut57 wrote:So, I will be greedy

You got that right, especially with current times & prices. Call around maybe.

Cheers!

Try the Happy Lobster. The truck pops up in Rogers Park regularly.

https://www.happylobstertruck.com/

If memory serves and Google images can be believed, Boston Fish Market serves this style of lobster roll. On-line menu says it's $30.



Giovanna

The GP wrote:Try the Happy Lobster. The truck pops up in Rogers Park regularly.

https://www.happylobstertruck.com/

Thanks - I just signed up to follow them.

What an amazing food truck!

Giovanna wrote:If memory serves and Google images can be believed, Boston Fish Market serves this style of lobster roll. On-line menu says it's $30.



Giovanna

Thanks Giovanna. I will look them up too and see if it is served warm. The fries look beautiful. I love a good fry.

I think the restaurant I was trying to remember was GT Fish & Oyster. That had the amazing warm lobster roll with onion strings.

Now they are charge $62 which is utterly insane. And no more delicious onion strings - now just barbecue chips. For $62.

I'll keep looking around for something a bit cheaper, maybe closer. I'm in the near West suburbs on the edge of Chicago.

We have part-time retired to southern Maine. And we are aficionados of the lobster roll. They come in all shapes, preps & sizes up here.

Cheapest--and pretty good in its own right--was from the Shore Market in York, probably 3 oz warm with drizzled butter on a toasted split-top hot dog roll, $16.99.

Most expensive--but totally nirvana-esque--was at least 6 oz of chilled, dressed lobster, mostly knuckle & tail meat--on a large, toasted, slightly-sweet Hawaiian-style roll at C Salt Gourmet Market in Cape Elizabeth. Sprinkled with minced scallions. $34.99...but oh, so worth it!

FYI...up & down the seacoast, in between are various incarnations of size, mostly in the $25 range.

Also FYI...the Maine Lobster Outlet in York on Rte. #1 currently has steamed, whole lobsters to-go at a season-low price of $6.99/lb. In April the price was $13.99/lb. Might have to partake today or tomorrow before the market goes up again.

My favorite size is 1.5 to 1.75 lbs., perfect for tastiness & tender meat. Starting with the monsters at 2# and over, the shells are hard to crack, and the meat gets tough.

I can beat all those prices--not always, just at the moment, because I still have some frozen lobster tails ($5 for Valentine's Day). I was just thinking of making some lobster rolls. I sought out split-top buns and found them at Jewel, but decided to buy the bigger Butternut brat & sausage buns, which are squishy soft and I think will be great for toasting in butter.

One of my brothers has lived his whole adult life in the Eastern time zone, mostly in Vermont but occasionally in Pennsylvania and Maine. He's spoken of how affordable and plentiful lobster was in Maine in season---that there was always a big bowl of lobster salad in the fridge, people bringing more to cookouts, and Post-It notes on the fridge saying "Eat the lobster salad!" Sounds rough, huh? I think I wouldn't mind putting up with that hardship for a couple of summers. I don't know how affordable Maine lobster is at the moment (although Jay does )

I always thought lobster salad with mayo versus butter was just a matter of taste preference. It only occurred to me today that mayo works better for large batches in the fridge; butter works better for a freshly made serving or two. Maybe the best solution if you are lucky enough to have a big bowl of lobster meat is to keep it undressed while refrigerated and add butter or mayo at the last minute.

Earlier in April, the outlets that steam lobsters for you were as much as $13.99/lb, which locals & my family thought was nuts. They've come down to $11.99 for hard-shell, so the pound-and-a half'ers I bought yesterday were about 18 bucks apiece. We kept two in abeyance--plus a couple of lobster bodies, good meat in there--for whatever we do with it today, probably lobster salad.

I had reported upthread that Maine Lobster Outlet yesterday had a deal on lobsters for $6.99/lb. Kind of not telling the whole truth. For that price, they are soft-shell ('new' lobsters, my uncle called them 'sheddahs') between 1.0-1.5 lbs. If I didn't have friends in town that I needed to create the picturesque lobster experience for, I'd have gone that route. In those, the meat's the same great taste but more water in there. I've done it when making lobster rolls for a crowd.

Restaurants? A two-pounder dinner will probably run you $40-45, 1.5# in the $30 range. Steamed clams $8.99/lb. at the Outlet, and they were as sweet as anything, no sand at all. Kept some of those babies too to mix with leftover linguine.

Katie wrote:I can beat all those prices--not always, just at the moment, because I still have some frozen lobster tails ($5 for Valentine's Day).

I will bet those are the four-ounce tails? A few years ago, Jewel had those on sale for 99 cents each limit two. It was the only time I ever bought them. Of course, I have never seen those that inexpensive since.

Soft shell lobster is something I have read about, but never seen. I have a feeling those never reach the Chicago market. How soft are the shells?

Regards,
Cathy2

You might try the Fish Guy on Elston. If you sign up for his weekly newsletter, occasionally there will be a sale on to-go lobster rolls. Offered for $16/each tomorrow Tuesday 6/7 - limit 2 call ahead to order.


The Fish Guy Market
773-283-7400
4423 N. Elston Ave.
Tues. - Sat. 9 am - 4 pm

Cathy2 wrote:Soft shell lobster is something I have read about, but never seen. I have a feeling those never reach the Chicago market. How soft are the shells?
Regards,
Cathy2

Soft shell lobsters are the same as soft shell crabs. They are crustaceans that have recently shed their shell in order to grow.

An article that I found indicates that it is less seasonal than crab, and so less common and harder to find.

https://lobsteranywhere.com/seafood-sav ... -lobsters/