How to eat a lobster?

Dear ladies, gentlemen and children, you will certainly enjoy a high-end dinner with seafood being the main course of the meal. However, do you really know how to eat seafood? Should you use chopsticks, a fork, a knife or your fingers?  Let’s talk about the king of seafood, the lobster.

Chinese and western ways of cooking lobster

The Chinese way

In Chinese ways of cooking, the hard shell of lobster is removed, only some parts of soft shell, the legs and the tail remained before it is served. What could you do with only chopsticks? Can you directly put the meat and shell into your mouth and then spit the shell out after?  Absolutely not. I suggest you take one piece of meat with soft shell into your plate first. Then press one chopstick on the meat and rub between the meat and the shell with the other chopstick to separate the two parts. If the hard shell over the tail remained and you could not detach the shell with chopsticks, ask the waiter to help you remove the shell, it will be easier.

The Western way

In western way of cooking, lobsters are either served boiled, steamed, or grilled but generally cooked and served in the shell. We are going to see in detail the cutlery for lobster and how you should manage to eat it elegantly.

Seafood cutlery presentation

Nutcracker: This clamping device has ridges on the inside. Use it to break off one of the lobster’s legs, and then use the shellfish cracker to clamp the sides to break it open. Then, you can use the lobster fork to get to the flesh on the inside.  

Lobster fork: This 10-12 cm fork has two long and narrow prongs, used to pierce or spear through a lobster served in its shell.  You must hold the lobster with one hand when using the utensil. The difficult part here is trying to remain elegant while using your hand. The prongs of the fork will help you getting through the crevices to take the flesh.

Table manners when eating lobster

To prevent the juice from squirting from the shell, slowly twist the large claws from the body.

You can now separate the small pieces of the front claws at the joints delicately with your fingers and collect the flesh with the lobster fork.

Crack the larger part of the claw with a nutcracker and pull the flesh out with the fork.

You should now take the tail off the body. For this, twist the tail and the body in opposite directions. The tomalley will appear; it is a green substance near the body hole. Do not eat it, you can remove it with your fork and discard it.

Remove the tail flippers with your fingers. To eat the flesh in the tail, insert a sharp knife inside and pull the flesh out. You may also use your fork to scrub the flesh out. If it doesn’t work, you can cut the under-shell and extract the flesh with a fork.

You’ll find the digestive tract in the tail’s flesh. It looks like a large vein. As for the tomalley, remove it and discard it with your fork.

You now have the flesh from the tail ready to be eaten, you can dip it with the lobster fork into the sauce.

If you’re feeling bold and wish to explore different tastes, there is also meat in other parts of the body of the lobster: the closest parts to the body are the smaller claws, and the eight legs. For the claws, crack them open with a nutcracker. Do the same for the legs before extracting the flesh with the fork. You can then enjoy this tasty dish with elegance.

Ladies, gentlemen and children, I hope you will now eat lobster flawlessly. Let me know in case of any doubts, in the comments below!