I had a lot of involvement in my sons scouting years. One of the big events was the Pinewood Derby. I was responsible for it several years back. I finally have recovered and wrote about it. Again I retro dated it so it fell in the proper timeline. You can read about it HERE.
I stepped out of my comfort zone last night. I made (and ate) lobster. Aside from a small taste a few weeks ago, I haven’t eaten lobster since I was… oh 5 or 6… may be 8ish? Point being, a long long time. I had some sort of deep childhood assurance that I didn’t like it. When it comes to food, I will try almost anything. Even things which I don’t like just to see if my taste buds have come around. I have tried things like shrimp and scallops recently, and nope, still don’t like em. But the lobster? No, there’s no way I could like it. I tried it as a small child, and that was that. I am not sure what happened. I don’t even remember the experience, but clearly, something freaked me the heck out. I had a pretty solid wall up against it. I knew how I felt and there was no need to try it again.
While we were on vacation this year, I was mentioning it to the folks we were staying with (they deep dive and catch the lil critters themselves). They let me try some lobster salad. I was not real happy about trying it, but I did it (you know… trying to be a good guest n all that). Hey, this wasn’t bad. It wasn’t bad at all. Being that they had a freezer full, they sent us home with some freshly caught, direct to freezer lobster (stuff that they had personally caught). I have been a bit worried to try it for fear that I would 1. screw it up, and 2. not like it after all.
Well, it was time to move on… eat fish or cut bait, so to speak. I read up on it, and then I messaged the family we were staying with to see how this might be cooked. There really was not much to it… For 4 tails, Smash some fresh, finely chopped garlic (I used 3 cloves) into some butter making a thick paste, split and open the back of said tails “like a book”, spread the stuff inside, down the middle, then bake for 20 minutes at 350. I gave it a whirl and it couldn’t have been easier. How did it taste? MMMyess, The lobster was pretty dern’d impressive. A bit of lemon butter on top and life was good. It was surprisingly sweet.
A few things I am curious about. A couple of them had a really hard shell while the other 2 had a really soft shell. Different types? The meat was softer too.
And then the outer… skin? (No not the shell ;0) ) The orangish red covering. Is that to be eaten, or cut off? I eventually cut it off as it made things a little chewy.
The point of the title… Get over yourselves and go try stuff (and I am speaking to myself as much as you here). We get all boxed up about what we like and dislike. But sometimes we have to ask why we like and dislike, and more, push those boundaries to see if there’s some give. No, I still don’t like shrimp, and I certainly don’t like coffee (yeah, I know). But I have tested these things quite often, and know from the experience, not from some age reinforced concept that comes from… some unknown memory that you can’t even trace.
