Woman Eats 22 Pound Lobster On Her Birthday ($500 Entree)

[matcom]

http://media.2theadvocate.com/images/huge+lobster+111606.jpg

<snip>

There were more than a few cries of amazement Tuesday evening as the servers and chef at Sullivan’s Steakhouse wheeled a 22-pound lobster — a soon-to-be $500 entrée — to the table in the center of the room.

Chelsea, as the estimated 110-year-old lobster had lovingly become known in its last few hours of life, got a star’s treatment at the restaurant, complete with an entry behind servers waving flashing sparklers while it sat atop a rolling cart decorated with a black tablecloth, cilantro, lemons and peppers.

“It’s the biggest I’ve ever seen,” Bill Harter, a Maryland native who is no stranger to lobsters, remarked to his tablemates as he turned his head to get a closer peek.

Chelsea had been plucked days earlier from the waters south of Kennebunkport, Maine, after a month-long lobster hunt commissioned by Reid McAllister, the head chef at Sullivan’s.

His goal was to find one of the biggest lobsters imaginable for the Price family, who are loyal patrons of his restaurant.

In September, while consuming a 6-pound lobster at Sullivan’s during her father’s birthday, Summer Price quipped to the waitress that she would like to have a 20-pound lobster for her 28th birthday, almost a month later.

The waitress, and the lobster’s namesake, Chelsea Ransom, jumped at the suggestion, and the chase was on -- after a down payment for the first 10 pounds.

McAllister’s initial few phone calls were met with laughs by the fishermen.

“It’s something you’ve got to find – an old fishermen’s hunt,” he said of the quest for a 20-pounder.

With Price’s birthday looming, the lobster was found and shipped, arriving at Sullivan’s the day of the celebration.

As the lobster sat on a dish in the kitchen, awaiting its ultimate fate, the restaurant’s staff snapped photographs with cell phones and cameras. General Manager Leo Verde shrugged off a question about whether such a rugged survivor deserved to be served.

“It’s a delicacy,” he said, comparing it to a novelty like a 50-pound pumpkin. “You don’t do this every day.”

Less than a hour later, Chelsea made its debut before the diners, wheeled to Price’s table.

Price, seated at the table of nine, kidded that the lobster grabbed the limelight on her birthday celebration.

Her initial response upon seeing the lobster wasn’t newspaper friendly and moments later she said she was still speechless.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/4662501.html?showAll=y&c=y

[mainegreen]

1. Umm, I'm pretty sure that's outside the legal weight limits here in Maine.

In fact, I think you get it very serious trouble for fishing those.

Plus lobsters get gamey if they get that big.

[matcom]

2. my thoughts too

bet it tasted like shit

[Parche]

5. rock lobster

You can tell how fresh a Lobster is by the meat, if it is the same size as the shell
then it is fresh and good, if not, dont eat it.


Monday Sept 10th 2001 I had 2 fresh maine lobsters for dinner they were the best I have
ever tasted, one of our clients flew it in with him..........woke up the next morning to tragedy

[RebelOne]

13. Rock lobsters are small and are caught in the Florida Keys.

And very, very tasty. I ate a half-dozen of them once.

[madinmaryland]

3. Don't they get rubbery when they get that large?

Kind of like eating your shoes or tires.

:blech:

[warrens]

32. Not necessarily

Usually they get overcooked when they go over two or three pounds but supposedly they're fine if cooked properly. Not that I have ever tried.

[Broken_Hero]

47. True...same thing

with halibut too...they bigger they are, the crappier the meat usually...

[underpants]

4. It's a good thing that doesn't have pinchers on the way out

Harrumph!

[Little Wing]

6. Kinda sad, really

[ThomCat]

60. Very sad.

:(

[jilln]

7. "Star treatment" indeed, after being plunged live into boiling water no doubt

and scrambling to try to get out of the pot.

Boiling animals alive might be the sickest thing I've ever heard and the fact that this merits a laudatory news article speaks volumes about what a sick society we live in. And that's not even addressing the gluttony and the idea that anyone would spend $500 on a meal when so many are starving. Disgusting.

[matcom]

8. actually they aren't boiled

they are steamed

[jilln]

9. Do you work at the restaurant?

In any case, steamed alive is not much better, is it?

[matcom]

10. no. what the hell does THAT have to do with anything?

:shrug:

[jilln]

24. Wondering how you know that particular lobster was steamed, not boiled

because restaurants DO boil lobsters.

in any case, i didn't mean it to sound that rude. And I stand by the fact that it's still unbelievably cruel.

[Spider Jerusalem]

58. Invertebrates lack nervous systems developed enough...

to process anything that we would recognise as "pain".

[ThomCat]

61. Yet, they clearly react to injuries in ways we would

recognize as pain.

[Spider Jerusalem]

62. Involuntary response to stimulus.

Which doesn't imply "pain". In the absence of a complex nervous system and of anything resembling consciousness, it's not possible for an animal to experience what we call "pain". Therefore it's just silly anthropomorphising to suggest otherwise. (THere are numerous studies that have reached this basic conclusion, by the way.)

[ThomCat]

63. I'd love to see some of them

because I've never seen anything peer reviewed that suggested that.

[Spider Jerusalem]

64. I've never seen anything peer-reviewed...

that suggested that invertebrates have the capacity to experience what we humans call "pain". If you can point me to such an article in any journal, I would likewise love to see it. The only literature I'm aware of that suggests the conclusion you're advocating consists of monographs commissioned by animal-rights groups, which can hardly be considered free of bias.

Here's something from a researcher at the University of Oslo, concluding that invertebrates lack the sentience necessary to have an experience that could be categorised as pain (there's probably more, but stimulus response in invertebrates isn't as heavily researched a subject as similar responses in vertebrates and especially mammals): http://scholar.google.com/scholar?num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=cache:37sGDl7f4pkJ:www.vkm.no/dav/0327284150.pdf+

[ThomCat]

66. Given that science can't measure pain at all

the idea that they Can't feel pain needs to be proven. It would be amazing if science thinks they can't feel something that we can't measure.

There is no peer reviewed study that says they do, for the same reason, but then I'm not the one claiming that observable reactions to injuries are not pain.

I've heard the idea many times that fish don't feel pain, that other sea life doesn't feel pain, and that even some farm animals don't feel pain. It's usually people in the food industry making it up to justify cruel practices. I've never seen anything to back up the claims but wishfull thinking.

[Scout1071]

82. Whole Foods doesn't agree.

They stopped selling lobster this year.

[datasuspect]

65. hey, don't drag science into this!

it takes away all the touchy feely sentiment

[ThomCat]

67. If someone claims that science has proven

that it's not pain, when science can't even measure pain, then I'd love to see that science. Until then, this is psuedo-science. :eyes:

[datasuspect]

70. i understand what you are saying

and this is an internet discussion, not a scholarly forum.

i am more inclined to base a reasonable assumption on what spider wrote because it simply makes sense.

still, i would never shed a tear over something as delicious as a crustacean.

[ThomCat]

71. I'll disagree about it making sense.

Neurological reactions are among the most basic reactions in biology. Anything that can feel sensations can probably feel pain. There is no reason to think the sensation of pain is missing in creatures that are able to sense of pressure, heat or cold.

In humans, the way of measuring pain is the Wong-Baker facial grimace scale. They decide how much pain you are based on your facial reaction to that pain. Seriously, it's that subjective. So the idea of knowing how much pain any other animal is or is not feeling is just ridiculous.

Edit to correct spelling.

[jilln]

73. Right, animals are autobots.

Or wait, are we out of the 18th century now?

BTW, people who wanted to use animals as they saw fit have also insisted that they are not intelligent because they don't use tools or recognize themselves, both of which have proven to be false since.

Unfortunately, many people choose to go on abusing animals because it's simply easier than being kind.

[Spider Jerusalem]

74. ....

I said "invertebrates"; surely you're capable of realising that not all animals are invertebrates? And invertebrates certainly don't use tools, nor do they have self-awareness. What you're saying has NO SIGNIFICANCE WHATEVER to the subject under discussion.

[jilln]

75. You completely missed the point.

The point is that even recently, humans insisted that animals such as dogs can't feel. Now that seems ridiculous.

But humans who abuse animals (such as boiling them alive) refuse to believe such things as long as possible so they can continue abusing them.

[Spider Jerusalem]

76. That's absurd.

I'm sorry that you're incapable of grasping the difference between a mammal with a complex nervous system and an invertebrate, but there IS a rather large difference, whether you like it or not.

[jilln]

77. I'm not incapable of that, although you seem to be incapable of

being civil.

Nothing of what I said was absurd.

Do what you need to do to feel OK about boiling sentient creatures alive. I'm not gonna tell you it's OK.

[Spider Jerusalem]

78. Invertebrates aren't sentient;

sentience implies consciousness and awareness. Invertebrates lack nervous systems complex enough for anything that could be recognised as consciousness. Again, what you're saying is utterly absurd.

[jilln]

79. According to the dictionary they are.

sentience: sentient condition or character; capacity for sensation or feeling

sentient: 1. having the power of perception by the senses. 2. characterized by sensation. 3. one who or that which is sentient. 4. the conscious mind.

From Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary.

Or are you now gonna say invertebrates have no sight, hearing or touch senses either?

If I had known you didn't know the definition of the word, I wouldn't have wasted my time. And if lobsters can't feel, why do they try to get out of the pot? Using your "logic," they'd just think they were back in the sea and blissfully die.

Quit the ridiculous 18th century arguments and join the 21st already.

[Spider Jerusalem]

80. Sorry, but I DO know the definition of the word;

it's specifically linked to consciousness (OED, 2nd ed., "sentience": The condition or quality of being sentient, consciousness, susceptibility to sensation). Invertebrates respond to stimuli, but with only 100,000 neurons, their nervous systems are FAR too simple for CONSCIOUSNESS. (You seem not to grasp this, for some reason.)

[RedStateShame]

11. And afterward, she crapped on a poor person in the street.

[acmavm]

12. A creature makes it to 110 years old and they KILL it?

edit: They kill it just so some horribe wretch can eat if for her birthday????

I don't know, maybe I'm wrong but this is just not striking me as being right.

[Kali]

14. I appreciate the sentiment but have to wonder what their lifespans'

are normally and if it was still reproducing and/or possibly close to death anyway? And does it make any difference?

[RebelOne]

29. According to this article, east coast lobsters

can live 100 to 125 years.

http://www.wonderquest.com/mortality-no-see-ums-appliance-loads.htm

[Kali]

53. So it may have been close to the end of it's life anyway?

Do you suppose death of old age for a sea creature is somehow less "cruel" than cooking it?

I don't really know the answers to this but I do know in general, in nature, critters that make it to old age are usually killed and eaten by predators when they become too weak to defend themselves or they simply starve to death...

[RebelOne]

15. My thought, exactly. n/t

[redqueen]

22. Yup... disgusting. The whole thing is just nasty all the way around. n/t

[Taverner]

26. It's basically an insect

It's hard for me to stir up sympathy for an insect that lives underwater, especially when there's soo much human suffering going around

[RebelOne]

34. Where do you get the idea that it is basically an insect?

Lobsters, shrimp, crabs are all crustaceans and not any part of the insect species.

[Taverner]

35. True - but in terms of intelligence, and their biology

Pretty similar to insects.

They share a common ancestor too don't they?

[SteppingRazor]

37. Well, all crustaceans are arthropods...

the phylum that includes insects, arachnids and crustaceans.

So, it would be correct to say they're a close relative of insects. But not that they are, in fact, large insects.

[av8rdave]

28. reminds me of the Gary Larson cartoon

where the guy just cut down a several hundred year old tree, and is pointing out all the rings to his son and describing all the events the tree miraculously survived.

[acmavm]

40. I remember that one, and you're right. It's about the same thing.

[wryter2000]

55. Exactly

In Calveras Big Trees state park in CA is the stump of a huge, old redwood. In the nineteenth century some idiots ringed it and sent the bark to Queen Victoria, killing the tree.

[Initech]

52. I agree, it's sad that something lives that long and meets this fate.

:argh:

[Kali]

16. So how much actual "meat" in a 22 lb lobster?

[Sanity Claws]

17. Gluttony

I love food but too much food is sickening. I really don't understand this gluttony thing.

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. Yuck - I've found that beyond two pounds, they get rubbery and not as tasty

What a vicious, self-centered, arrogant pretentious BITCH to kill and eat a lobster that old and that large.

I can't imagine it tasted anywhere near as good as a smaller lobster. Considering the taste difference between a 1.5 pounder and a 2.5 pounder, I can only imagine a 22 pounder is like eating overcooked scallops.

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. Did I miss something?

There's nothing in the story about the lobster actually being eaten. :shrug:

[matcom]

21. rest of the article.....

Then, it was time for Chelsea to be wheeled back to the kitchen, ready to become, in an estimated 45 minutes, what Verde said would be the largest lobster ever cooked in Baton Rouge. It was the largest Verde and McAllister had seen in almost 45 years combined in the restaurant business.

Still, Chelsea wasn’t even halfway to being the largest living lobster ever caught. That honor belongs to a 54-pound behemoth, McAllister said.

There was no official word on what happened to that lobster, but he surmised it met the same fate.

And how did Chelsea taste? “It was perfect,” Verde said.

[Oeditpus Rex]

25. Still doesn't say she ate it

:shrug:

[matcom]

27. "And how did Chelsea taste? “It was perfect,” Verde said."

:shrug:

[Oeditpus Rex]

33. Verde is the restaurant manager

:shrug:

[yvr girl]

20. That seems like way too much meat to me

Shouldn't a serving of meat be palm size.

[pdx_prog]

23. I like a good surf and turf just as much as the next person

but that thing would scare the hell out of me!

[SoCalDem]

30. Shame on her..

Poor ole lobster.. hope he was tough and tasteless:(

[warrens]

31. A N.H. woman just won an even bigger one in a raffle

She said she hates lobster, so they put it back in the ocean. The biggest I ever saw was 18 lbs., and it was enormous.

[johnnie]

36. Uh huh uh huh.. but...

Who is the woman in the lower right hand corner? :shrug:

[KamaAina]

38. Considering this happened in Louisiana...

...they could have just been filming a Grade B horror flick, "The Mutant Crawfish That Ate East Baton Rouge Parish".

They tried to get Kevin Federline for the lead, but for some reason, his agent said he wouldn't film in La. :evilgrin: so it looks like Pauly Shore.

[Auggie]

39. Those people are pigs

[pitohui]

41. wow i suspect she had help eating that bad boy!

happy birthday!

how are they going to top that next year?

[jmowreader]

43. Does "soylent green" mean anything to you?

[THUNDER HANDS]

42. anyone else but me find lobsters absolutely disgusting

I mean, aside from the fact that you're eating something that looks the same when it was alive, the thing is just an ugly creature. If roaches could get to be 20 pounds would people eat them too?

[Lisa]

51. wonder how many toxins are in a hundred-year-old scavenger?

Personally, I can eat just about anything. My relatives dig into some pretty bizarre stuff, by North American standards -- sea urchin innards, anyone? -- lends a whole new meaning to the phrase "Japanese family upbringing". But having studied the presence of things like POPs and heavy metals in the food web -- and processes such as bioaccumulation -- I have to say that I'd be throwing an elderly lobster/crab/geoduck back in the salt chuck from whence it came.

[Lowell]

44. Disgusting people, but fitting

they do call lobsters cockroaches of the sea. Why would anyone kill a creature like that? Over 100 years old. Such a shame. Everyone knows that the best tasting crustaceans are the younger ones. At that age it must have tasted like a fossil.

[Xipe Totec]

45. Do you like crawdads?

That's on the opposite end of the size/age scale they live about a year, grow not bigger than 6 ounces.

We call them mud bugs because that's where they live; in the mud.

http://www.lacrawfish.com/photogallery.html

[Lowell]

48. Of course I love mudbugs and rice

but I don't run across many 100 yr plus crawdaddys. And yes, they are still aquatic cockroaches. Anyone from bayou country knows that you catch a lot of good mudbugs in ditches and drainage pipes. That doesn't mean they don't taste great. But they are nasty critters.

[Xipe Totec]

49. Excellent!

I love mud bugs too, even if they are cockroaches of the sea.

Yea, I felt sorry for grandpa'.

Don't know about crustaceans, but among sea turtles at least, the older animals are the major breeders. The older the animal, the more offspring it produces (kind of an evolutionary bonus for longevity).

So eating animals past a certain age is generally a bad idea from the point of view of renewable resources.

[JVS]

46. How much butter was required?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

50. I love lobster, but I find this sad...

110 year old...
Seems like it should have been given amnesty just for living that long.

[wryter2000]

54. That's just wrong

They should have left that animal alone. I'll bet it was tough as all hell. My husband I got 2.5 pound lobsters once thinking we were in heaven. We could only eat about half of it and had leftovers for the next two nights (served with pasta and other ways). I swore at the time I'd never buy a lobster over 1.5 pounds again.

I can't bring myself to kill them anymore.

[peacefreak]

56. Oh man, you guys are making me feel guilty.

Some friends just gifted me with 3 lobsters--one at least was 4lb. May I say it was extremely tasty (as she wipes the thread of butter dripping down her face). It was 2 hours from boat to pot. And yes, I steamed them.

[ikojo]

57. How sad....that lobster was alive the last time

the Cubs won the world series....

I have never had lobster..well first Jews aren't supposed to eat shellfish so I don't and second, when I pass them I feel so sorry for them being stuck in an aquarium, not knowing their fate.

Gluttony.

[Digit]

59. Tacky, just plain tacky

That's all.

[Pithlet]

68. Puke

It's just so speshal that it's pwincess's buwfday! Nothing but the best. Maybe next year they can find the biggest redwood tree and cut it down for her and make her a bitchin dinette set!

[BreweryYardRat]

69. Damn.

Lobster's good, but that animal should have been treated as a zoological curiosity.

[eppur_se_muova]

72. "Now fell me a redwood -- I need some toothpicks." nt

[YankeyMCC]

81. Would that even taste good?

First of all I'm no lobster fan (which is awkward since I live in the Boston area :) ) but still the idea of making a meal out of a creature that has lived for 110 years offends my sense of what is just and my respect for the world around me.

But I've always heard that you don't want a lobster to big because it's older and not as tender and I gotta thing 110 year old meat isn't gonna be very succulent.