Recession Bargain: Lobsters Are Cheap, Cheap, Cheap
The New York Times says that due to the recession there is a glut of available lobster, which is driving down prices.
Apparently, processing plants in Canada that used to buy the excess lobster have shut down due to the recession — leaving a flood of extra lobster in the market. Prices are down about $3 a pound — but the era of cheap lobster might not last long.
The lobster fishermen are victims of their own success, he said, explaining that because they have managed to make lobster fisheries so sustainable, they have recently had record catches.
Until now, the excess catch was funneled to Canadian processing plants, which sold them frozen to chain restaurants. But the bad economy hit the Canadian plants hard enough to shut down operations.
That means cheaper lobsters for you and me at least temporarily.
Its gotten to the point where for the fishermen, its not worth their while to catch lobsters, so the supply will decrease, Mr. Corson said.
So, now's the time to try out that fancy lobster recipe you've been dreaming about.
Luxury on Sale: Lobster Glut [NYT] (Thanks, C!)
(Photo: decaf )
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I don't like cheap or expensive lobster. Call me when they lower the price of choice Ribeye steaks!
Mmmmm, Christmas Lobster.
Lobsters creep me out. I have a hard time believing they're not an alien race whose plans to take over the planet didn't quite work out.
P.S. Somebody post a link to the u-tube video of that adorable kid who wanst-to-but-won't touch a lobster and goes all OM-NOM-NOM about it.
It's lobster bisque time people!
Lobster with my standing rib roast this xmas!
I've only had lobster once and it was from a nicer restaurant and I still didn't like it. I don't think I'll be buying any cheap ones.
Damn gout!
I once read somewhere that lobster used to be a poor-man's food.
They were so abundant in the Northeast, they were easy to catch and would be given to slaves.
Funny how supply and demand affects our world view. If fish eggs were easy to obtain, would they really be a luxury food?
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy->β : Ooh... my condolences. Stay away from them peanuts, too! (I think? My dad had gout for a while.)
They'd make great pets, too. If they could manage to avoid jumping into a pot of boiling water that I promise I had nothing to do with. Why DO they enjoy hot tubs so much? *flings toothpick*
Growing up in the Boston Area (Yeah, I know- it's called New England), I got lobster all the time, even though my folks never made that much money.
My fave was a tie between their anniversary dinner at the restaurant that offered a 2 lobster meal. I was 10-12 years old, and my folks said yes, if I thought I could finish them, and I did. Mom said that every face in the place was watching me eat those lobsters, and I did them justice.
Tied with that incident was Bill the neighbor whose brother was a lobsterman, and who gave Bill two 45 pound lobsters as a joke. They were too big to be sold, so the brother ditched them. Bill called my dad, and said him that one of two was his, if he said anything to boil them in. By this time, I was 16 or 17 years old, and I scrambled out to the garage where I found the big galvanized tub we used to wash the dog. I brought it in, we filled it with water, and waited a few hours for the water to boil. When they went into the pot, I was there with a rake, because when you put a 3 1/2 foot long lobster into hot water, it tries to climb out, and I had to push it back in with the rake. I still have a claw from that one, 30 years later.
Well I'm no biologist, but I beleive that Lobsters fall into the 'Anthropod' phylum and when you search for anthropod on Wikipedia, you see a picture of a spider.
Therefore Lobster tastes like tarantula.
maybe this will give the lobster population a chance to recover.
@Applekid: I've never seen a lobster jump. It must be the bib and butter you always have around that makes them antsy.
too bad carnival season is over. deep fried lobster on a stick sounds awesome.
@crashedpc: Never had problems w/peanuts. Except for shellfish, I tend to stay away from most of the foods that bother me. The worst was when I broke my Fibula and the next day my gout decided to flare up on the same foot as the leg. There wasn't enough Percocet to dull that pain.
@Murph1908: Same thing with diamonds. They are very abundant, but the merchants give them such a mystique of rarity that people pay a premium for them.
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy->β : My body shudders with empathy. Reminds me of the time I got shingles AND a kidney stone. Someone loves me...
@Trick: i've never been crazy about the taste or texture of lobster. or most seafood, for that matter.
@kepler11: sounds like there are plenty of lobsters. Otherwise millions of people a year wouldn't eat them in such massive quantity.
@kepler11: "explaining that because they have managed to make lobster fisheries so sustainable, they have recently had record catches"
Reading comprehension FTW.
Years ago, during the last lobster glut, McDonalds sold lobster rolls in New England.
@Secret Agent Man: they are both aRthropods. and the difference is crustacean vs. arachnid. i'm sure their environment (marine vs. terrestrial) and their diets would make them taste very different, especially if salt water vs freshwater fish (osteichthyes [bony fish]) taste so different, but i'm also sure the dynamic difference in specie would have the same result on flavor.
but i have never had tarantula, so scientifically, it can't be ruled out. : )
@jtheletter:
just because they said it's sustainable (a statement about rate) doesn't mean the population numbers have a safe buffer (absolute value).
It's called logic, one step beyond your reading comprehension.
@SteverMan: Man I Wish I had a lobster that big. I would keep it alive and feed it until it was big enough to ride. I would also keep bands on its claws so it could not kill me.
Hilarious. Giant lobsters would scare the hell out of me and completely turn me off from eating them.
@choinski:
I had one while vacationing in Maine. I remember it being quite tasty but that could be because I rarely have lobster.
hmm, instead of corn dogs, lobster dogs sound rather tasty, or maybe lobster nachos, I imagine anything tastes good when covered in nacho cheese and sour cream
I think we have a food network show to pitch:
'Does something luxurious taste like something disgusting?'
We'll have to work on the title.
@fjordtjie: A good friend of mine is a surgeon and he insists that human flesh is very similar to pork in terms of consistencty, fat levels, texture, etc.
So next time you eat pork, pretend you're eating your captured enemy from battle, or something. :)
I prefer their smaller cousins! MMMmmmm...crawfish! So much better than lobster, but I prefer shrimp even more.
@B:
Ah, maybe it was prisoners instead of slaves in the story that I remember. That makes more sense, considering it was Maine.
@SteverMan: That simply is the greatest story that I've read in weeks. Can you please post a picture of that claw!
@kepler11:
o.O
Fewer lobsters = fewer to catch = fewer offspring
/= definition of sustainable
You'll never catch 100% of the population. But if you catch more than they can replenish, that's not 'sustainable'.
So long as the catch rate doesn't go down, the population isn't going down. Therefore, there's a safe buffer.
It's called critical thinking, one step beyond your logic.
@Spaceboy: If I remember correctly, they were available for a limited time in New England every year but in Maine year round. My father would get excited to get one every time we went to Maine - I don't eat lobster, but he does, and he thought they were genuinely very good.
Does this mean I might be able to find lobster tails for a slightly sane price? I am too squeemish about doing whole ones. I had a horrible experience as a kid on vacation in Nova Scotia when I discovered I can't deal with eating anything that can stare back at me from the plate.
@Murph1908: It was both. There's a really great book called "The Secret Life of Lobsters" that explains how slaves used to negotiate with their masters to get less lobster because they were so sick of it. It was also used as fertilizer, if I remember correctly.
I never really liked lobster for some reason. Crab, shrimp, yes...but even if lobster was cheap, I just don't have a taste for it.
Lobsters are forbidden in Leviticus, you horrible horrible heathens.
This glut is a message from God that lobsters should only be eaten while wearing a mixed-fiber pantsuit to a same-gender wedding.
@Trick: Where I live, ground beef is 3.49/lb since the recession, whereas the ribeyes at the same store have stayed a steady 4.49/lb. So for a buck more, instead of hamburger helper, we eat pretty good!
To me, it seems like the recession/price grab has shot up the cost of lower-end food items, like beef, hot dogs, etc., while much of the higher end stuff has stayed the same pricewise. So while they're not lowering the price of ribeyes, with the rise in ground beef, it has become an affordable option in my household.
Strange, no?
Wasn't there a storyline in this recently in the NonSequitor comic strip? Recession means less lobster sales, which means fewer lobsters being caught, which means more lobsters can become fully grown, which means they can invade the mainland. Apparently they can be fought off with mayonnaise.
...and blueberries