LOBSTER ROLLS
Last year we were disappointed in the lobster rolls we ordered, no one of them was outstanding. Not only is the amount and type of lobster important, having the right kind of roll (split hot dog bun toasted) is key. On our quest this year for a great lobster roll, we are more pleased.
According to Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, “the lobster roll originated as a hot dish at a restaurant named Perry’s in Milford, Connecticut, as early as 1929. Its popularity then spread up and down the Connecticut coast, but not far beyond it. In Connecticut, the sandwich served warm is called a ‘lobster roll’; served cold, a ‘lobster salad roll.'”
Lobster rolls eventually spread beyond Connecticut and today are a New England favorite particularly associated with the state of Maine. Anyone who cares about lobster has surely heard of the award-winning Red’s Eats in Wiscasset. Red’s has a great PR operation in addition to offering huge lobster rolls. They started serving their lobster rolls as far back as 1970. Drive by today and there is usually a line of eager eaters, often a long line, waiting to order. A confession, I’ve never had a Red’s roll.
We had very good cold lobster rolls at Coastal Prime last week and the other day at Harborside 1901. We had intended to try Shannon’s Unshelled, an outdoor shack with picnic tables located near the Boothbay Harbor footbridge, but they were delayed in opening. And it was very hot out. We thought that the Tugboat Inn started lunch and lobster rolls around 11:00, but they didn’t open until 12. Our last option, apart from waiting for Shannon’s to go live, was Harborside.
We’d eaten there a few weeks ago but didn’t order lobster that time. This was the day, and this lobster roll was probably the best all-around I’ve had this year! Before we end our Maine time, however, we will try Shannon’s on a cooler day. After all, she advertises lobster from trap to table.
BOOKS OF THE WEEK
IMMIGRANT SCIENTIST
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
I was very taken with Gyasi’s first novel, Homegoing, even though it was a challenging read. This novel about the immigrant experience is much more accessible and straightforward. Gifty is a Ghanaian immigrant who moves to Huntsville, Alabama with her mother and brother. Told in the first person, Gifty looks back on her early childhood in Ghana and then how she and her family stood out in the white South. She is a Ph.D student in neuroscience at Stanford, obviously successful academically, but struggling to come to grips with her brother’s death from a drug overdose. At the same time, her mother, deep in depression, is staying with Gifty.
Gifty is a scientist, but she’s also a product of evangelical Christianity who puzzles over questions of faith. She reflects on how the hymns and Bible stories taken literally as a child might become meaningful in a different way as an adult. Her research with mice on reward-seeking behavior grows out of her strong desire to understand her brother and her mother.
In many ways, this is a quiet novel. And although it’s Gifty’s voice the reader hears, she keeps herself at a bit of a remove as if she needs what appears as detachment to process her extreme grief. Recommended! (~JWFarrington)
FRIENDS AND LOVERS IN ITALY
Lizzie & Dante by Mary Bly
Just as classical musicians sometimes transition to pop music, so authors of one genre take up a different genre, often with a pen name. J. K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame wrote as Robert Galbraith when introducing a new detective series for adults. So successful was the first Cormoran Strike mystery, The Cuckoo’s Calling,that she wrote four more. I have just started this series but am reserving judgement until I finish the first book.
Mary Bly is a professor and Shakespeare scholar at Fordham University. Some years ago, she began writing historical romances set in the Georgian era in England under the name, Eloisa James. She purposely used a pseudonym to not intrude upon her academic reputation. These books gained wide readership and after a while, she revealed her identity.
This novel is set in the present and the first one published under her real name. Thirty-two-year-old Lizzie is a professor and cancer patient who travels to Italy with two male friends, a novelist and an actor, to assist with research for a film of Romeo and Juliet. There she quickly meets Italian chef Dante, who has a 12-year-old daughter.
Lizzie and Dante are the center of this love story, but not the entire focus. One element is Lizzie’s reflections on what approach to take to living her life. Other elements, which add to the novel’s richness, are the rounded depiction of the secondary characters, Grey, Rohan, Etta, and Ruby, and the role that singing and poetry play in their individual lives. A quick read! (~JWFarrington)
Note: Lobster roll photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).
