Is The Lobster Roll A Waste Of Good Lobster?

Lobsters are one of those serious "luxury" foods, something that you order at a fine dining restaurant when money is no object, and it's brought to the table with great pomp and circumstance. So does it make sense to take the lobster from its shell, toss it with some mayo, and stuff it into a hot dog bun? Is that any way to treat a lobster?

Yes, in fact, yes it is. Sure, lobster is expensive. But just because it's expensive doesn't mean it needs to be presented whole, and enjoyed exclusively in a fine-dining restaurant!

Lobsters are unique in that they're one of the only foods in existence that are eaten in exactly the same manner in both extremely highbrow and extremely lowbrow restaurants: fine dining palaces and seaside shacks. They may taste the same, but the experience is completely different. If turning the lowbrow highbrow is trendy (selling a burger for $35, for example), then who's to say that turning the highbrow lowbrow can't be?

So yes, while enjoying a lobster roll may reduce the entire crustacean into something eaten in just a few bites, chased down with a beer in shorts and a t-shirt, it's just as respectable as eating a whole lobster at a white-tablecloth restaurant. In fact, it might even be preferable. Just ask anyone who's eaten a really good lobster roll!