Intro Three: Culinary Chronicles, Capers & Canards

Class 3

Ms. Hoagland

            This previous weekend, my family and I took an RV trip up to Maine. It was a very interesting experience for many reasons. I learned a lot on the trip, including all things about lobster. We went on a lobstering boat and learned everything that there is to know about lobsters. I learned that Maine produces 80% of the U.S.’s lobster, and that lobster was served to prisoners as a meal 5 times a week. It was known as the “poor man’s food”. Later on the people realized it was actually not for poor people and they started hiking the prices up because it was a food for “the wealthy”. An unusual fact was that fishermen sell lobsters for about 3 or 4 dollars for a pound of lobster, the stores and restaurants jack the prices up for profit. 

            My experience with lobster was a funny one. While we were at the camp, there was free food at the lobby area. So I go up and I am like cool free food, so I fill up my plate with pineapple, cantaloupe, potato salad, chips and what I thought was a chicken sandwich. It looked like chicken and had a sauce that made the texture the same. So I take a bite and I say wow, this is amazing chicken. I finish the sandwich and go to sleep. The next day as we were walking down the pier, my family was talking about the meal we had the previous day. Then we pass by one of the many lobster restaurants and my dad tells me that what I ate in the sandwich was lobster. I don’t usually eat seafood because it disgusts me, but I was fine with the fact that I had lobster because first, I already ate it, and second it tasted like chicken. It was a confusing way to try lobster for the first time, but I would definitely try it again!

-cam m