6 & 5. Grilled & Steamed Lobster

This morning I told myself, "today's the day. I'm gonna do it!"

Out in the rain, I went to the fishmonger to get the lobster. The fishmonger gave me a little tip: put the lobster in the freezer for about forty minutes to let the temperature down. I didn't ask why it matters, but I did it anyway.

At home, whilst the lobster was 'cooling down', I sat down, read my notes over and over and I kept telling myself, "Michael, you can do this" repeatedly. I called my friend Juliana, I told her that I'm about to kill a lobster and I asked her to wish me luck. She gave me her blessing.

Forty minutes later, the oven timer rang and it was time...

I took the lobster out from the freezer (still alive...I was hoping it's gonna be dead), put it on a chopping board and tried not to make any eye contacts. I wore my earphones and my ipod was on shuffle as loud as possible, just in case if the lobster squeals. I put on my CSI rubber gloves, grabbed a knife and I located the small cross mark on its head.

As I was about to place the tip of the knife on the lobster's head, my ipod was playing 'Rescue Me'. I couldn't believe this! It's like the time when I had to prepare live crabs all over again (the song at that time was 'Psycho Killer'). I pressed the next button on my ipod and the next song was 'Friends not Food' from Finding Nemo and I thought "Oh my God!! Is this for real?!" I'm not kidding, I couldn't even if I wanted to. I pressed next again and it was 'Say Goodbye' by Chris Brown. I gave up... I had to pick my own song and I chose 'Costello Music' album by The Fratellis. No particular reason why, I just need songs that won't make me cry.

The song was sorted and back to the lobster. I placed the tip of the knife on top of its head, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, said a little prayer, "please forgive me", counted to three... and then it was over. I killed the lobster...

I took another deep breath and pulled myself together before preparing the lobster for cooking. I turned the lobster around and chopped lengthways right down through the tail and I threw away the gritty stomach sac in the lobster's head.

One half of the lobster was steamed with lemon zest and butter. And the other half was grilled with garlic, chilli and lime.


The lobster was nice but I didn't really enjoy it if I have to be honest.

It was a weird experience preparing a live lobster and I don't plan to do it any time soon again. I still have another lobster recipe which require the same preparation but next time, I'll ask my fishmonger to do it for me.