Cheap Lobster

During the aughties, my friend Kate and I would make a fairly regular pilgrimage to Mamie's Café, in Hampden, for cheap lobster. IIRC, a chicken lobster (1 - 1.25 lbs) went for less than $10, but sides were extra. We'd always get the mussels with garlic "butter" as an appetizer, plus corn fritters and maybe salads or some other vegetable. And dessert. The lobsters were usually water-logged and made a huge wet mess on our plates. Sometimes they were pretty tough and overcooked. And the drawn "butter" was pretty obviously margarine (which is why we ordered the mussels - we'd save the garlic-y margarine for the lobster because it was tastier than the non-garlicked stuff).

Mamie's has since moved to Aberdeen and I have no idea if they still have the weekly cheap lobster fest.

Although the lobster wasn't all that great, I miss it. And then, thanks to Facebook, I saw that Alonso's has cheap lobster every Tuesday. Eighteen bucks will get you a small crustacean, an ear of corn, and a baked potato. With REAL butter.

We tried out the deal this week. I'm happy to report that the corn was yellow (and sweet and corny), the potato had not been steamed in a foil wrapper, and although the lobster did ooze water all over our plates, it was tender and sweet. And of course the butter went over all of it.

Had we stuck to the lobster dinner and water, we could have gotten out of there for less than what we usually spent at Mamie's, but we had the queso fundido appetizer and a couple glasses of Magic Hat #9 draught. Still - I thought it was a good price for whole lobster, plus sides, don't you?

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