Have you tried it?
I've NEVER eaten it, but I used to have to make it - from scratch.
$220 a head,
order would come in, if the KP's were busy, you had to go out the back to the lobster pool, put on your gumboots and get in the tank (mid calf height water) and find a lobby the size that was ordered. So, trying to guestimate a 700gram lobster while all his friends are swimming around and rubbing up against your legs.... *shudder*
then bring poor little "Rocky" into the kitchen and get ready to murder him.
Then get your plate ready with as much garnish and sides on it as you could at this stage.
set the timer
Also make sure you have an agile male waiter ready to go. (he will have to move quick at the end, and girls wear heels and couldn't move as fast as the men)
Now here is where it just gets totally barbaric, so if you have a weak tummy, cover your eyes.
Fresh Lobster Sashimi at $220 a pop has to be FRESH - ie you had 3 minutes max from the start to having it served on the table in front of the customer. If iot's eyes weren't still bugging and twitching and the flesh wasn't pusling when it got there, then iot wasn't fresh enough and would get sent back.
So, (making sure bucket is in the sink beside you) first, you pick up the living breathing wiggling lobster
from here, there is NO turning back, once you start, you just have to keep going
2) Twist and pull his head off. No knife to the brain, no immersion in boiling water, just rip the stitches and pull his head off, but not all the way off, yopu didn't want to sever the spinal cord, just yet... just wanted to twist and rip it off enough tio get the body clear of the head...
so now this lobster is really squirming, and screaming... guessing his pain levels are through the roof. But you can't let go, or you have to start again.
3) turn him on his back and cut down the sides of his tummy to remove the soft shell to get access to the pulsing quivering contracting flesh. The whole time the body is contracting around your hand, the spiky shell digging into it.
4) remove the head completely, and scoop out all the pulsing quivering innards and juices without squashing them (can't wash em out) and put innards in a bowl to the side.
5) wash out head, sit head on strainer over bowl of innards to let any other brain juices drip in... (can't waste them brain juices)
6) Now you can remove the flesh from the body cavity. It's kinda stuck in there, it doesn't just slide out when it's still raw and squirming and wiggling, contracting around your hand.
7) once you have the flesh out, you have to cut the tail into 15 to 20 perfect paper thin slices. Seems easy enough, eh? cept for the fact he's still squirming and pulsing
๐ check to see if the eyes on the head are still moving and bulging
9) put flesh on the plate, check the head has finished leaking, if not quick wipe and hope no one sees, put head on plate, standing up so the eyes are just googly and looking at you, add finishing garninsh
10) hope that the timer hasn't gone off, eventually got the above steps down under 100 seconds, so all was usually good)
11) give to waiter and hope he gets it to the table whilst its still wiggling.
12) remember the dish of brains and head juice? get that over to the entremettier, cos he uses that in the broth for the next course once the head comes back in - poached lobster guts,,,,
13) throw up - yep - every single time...
One night we got a walk in tour bus of Japanese... 30 of them ordered that that night... I looked at chef and he told me to just suck it up and get on with it. asked me if I was a chef or a girl.
I prepped the 30 plates, got the 30 lobsters out of the tank, collected my knives etc, handed over my keys and walked out. I just couldn't face it.
Some people can go their whole lives and never really live for a single minute.
