Reindert and Lobster, Cambridge, MA, 2010
Having somebody cook my dinner is something that only happens a few times a year. I love cooking, I try and cook for friends every so often, but with life being so busy, it only happens rarely. The dinner parties that used to happen don't seem to occur any more which is a shame. It appears it takes a sick friend or a really special occasion to get your dinner cooked for you.
Thinking about it, the last meal I had cooked for me was at Christmas - last meal I cooked for a friend - a few weeks ago when I went around to Blarney and Barney's house of pesilence to give them a bit of relief. It near the end of February. Think I should do something about this.
Anyway, to the photo. This was taken at Reindert and Corazon's, in their kitchen. Cooking is a big thing thing in their household and both of them are excellent cooks. When they have people to stay, 'Lobster Night" is a bit of a tradition.
Living in Boston, lobsters and other crustaceans are regular fare. This is the home of clam chowder and other delights, the food became popular, partly though the Catholic population not eating meat on Fridays, but also the fact the beasties are plentiful and delicious.
So, on this day, Reindert and I had spent a great day up in Salem - a place I had to go, being the witch that I am (it was another pilgrimage - and strangely poignant despite the tourist bent) On the way home we dropped into a supermarket and went to choose our lobsters, live from the tank. This was easier than I thought it would be. A veteran yabbie* catcher from way back, it was like looking a lot of big yabbies. The lobsters, claws trussed, were placed in plastic bags in the boot of the car and we drove the short distance back home.
When we got home, Reindert got cooking, the lobsters going straight into the freezer to quiet them. There were words about me putting the lobster in the boiling water. I chose to defer this honour. I'm a healer, I can't kill or hurt things. Happy for people do ethically and humanely do my bidding, but I just can't kill things.
So as Reindert is about to drop this lobster into the boiling water, I was saying a kaddish for it - thanking it for being my dinner and being so yummy, that this was the way of the world etc.
Have to say, it was a mighty fine dinner that night.
I look at this as one of my happy shots. Somebody's cooking my dinner for me - that's one of the best feelings in the world. Just wish I remembered what it felt like more often.
* For those not in Australia, a yabbie is a small freshwater crustacean found over Australia, like a small prawn. They inhabit creeks and waterways and are best caught, like lobsters, with a cage, or what we used, a bucket filled with holes and a peice of old steak or a bar of velvet soap tied the the bottom. Used to go yabbying all the time as a kid.
3 comments:
I didn't know you could catch yabbies with a bar of velvet soap. We used a piece of meat in the leg of a pair of panty hose.
I won't do lobsters but you are more than welcome to ours for a barbecue or some homemade chicken nuggets anytime. We're well sophisticated here. I sometimes miss the old dinner parties of my twenties - but mostly these days dinner is a chore!
What a lovely photo of who surely is a terrific bloke.
I'm with you - happy for someone else to do the lobster killing/cooking humanely. I'll do the dishes instead.
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