Poor people food: Lobster

[ponyo]

Shucking live oysters and clams are not easy but these ladies make it look effortless. Abalone, clams, oysters, conchs, sea pineapple, sea cucumber. Everything is just ridiculously fresh, live, and moving. Abalone was sliding around on those trays.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Funny....It had been over a year before I had lobster and was traveling when you posted this thread. Within a day or two of the OP, I ordered Surf and Turf in a restaurant...I think it was around $80 for an 18oz Ny Strip and a Butter-Poached Lobster tail (not steamed).

My mutha's from Dover-Foxcroft (Dovah-Foxcroft), Maine and grew up serving lobstah in Bah Hahbaah in the summahs. Anyhoo....I'd never heard of butter poached lobster....we used to always get it from the lobster pounds off the side of the highway where it was the cheapest and they were boiled/steamed with seawater. It was pretty tender and I didn't deal with any tough spots in the meat. I have mixed feelings about lobster, in general, because it can be really good or sometimes just so-so... I have better consistency in restaurants ordering steak or sustainable fish...so I usually stick to red meat or catch of the day.

 

[Jeeebus]

that market in Korea looks legit. enjoy the nom nom.

 

[nakedfrog]

Well to be fair, his videos did help me in choosing where to eat Korean BBQ in Busan. My daughter doesn't really eat seafood so I wanted to find great Korean BBQ restaurant to go to in Busan for her. Then I saw this video of his where he went to BBQ restaurant and waited almost 90 minutes for a table. That kind of long wait for restaurant in Korea is unheard of so I did some research on the BBQ restaurant he went to in the video below. It turns out that BBQ restaurant is really good and considered having the best BBQ beef in all of Korea outside of Seoul. So of course I'm 100% going there when I visit Busan. But he ate marinated beef ribs in the video because the plain beef ribs were sold out. Through research I found out the plain beef ribs are always sold out and must be reserved like 2 days in advance if you want to order it at the restaurant. You can't order on the spot at the restaurant as they will always tell you it's completely sold out. The plain beef ribs served at the restaurant are from number 5,6, and 7 plate ribs of the cow. The marinated beef ribs are from chuck short ribs and thus cheaper. So I understand now why the plain beef ribs are more expensive at $42 per singe serving and always sold out and the marinated beef ribs are $36 per serving and always available. I'm going to place order for 10 servings of the plain beef ribs in advance as soon as I land in Busan. If I'm still hungry after 10 servings, I'll just order some marinated beef ribs to finish out the meal. And the noodles they give are actually noodles made from potatoes. So you can't eat it like regular flour noodles like he did in the video. Since it's potato noodles he needed to wait until the noodles absorbed all the liquid broth and overcooked to the point the noodles start sticking to the metal cooking grate. That's when the potato noodles are done and ready to eat. He ate it way too early before it's cooked with all the broth still remaining. Of course the noodle is not going to be good.

10 servings as one meal, at $42 each?

 

[ponyo]

that market in Korea looks legit. enjoy the nom nom.

I’m loving it but the time change and the jet lag is kicking my butt. Yesterday I was so tired that I passed out around 6 pm and woke up around 1 am dazed, confused, and hungry. Luckily there are streets filled with food stalls open just at night for people to drink and eat and restaurants open all hours. So I wondered out and ate some pork soup with rice and some blood sausage at around 2 am in the morning but couldn’t fall to sleep. It’s currently little after 6 am here and I’m eating fresh strawberries and drinking my 3rd cup of coffee. I’ve been up all night unable to sleep.

The strawberries here taste amazing. It’s basically like 98% similar to Japanese strawberries. Sweetest and the best tasting strawberries in the world are Japanese strawberries. Bar none. If you ever visit Japan or Korea, just eat strawberries. Strawberries in the US, Europe, and elsewhere in the world are garbage in comparison. And I’m not exaggerating. It’s literally day and night difference in taste. It’s too bad most people in the world will never know what real strawberries are supposed to taste like.

10 servings as one meal, at $42 each?

One serving is tiny. Single serving is two rib bones weighing around 200 grams or 7 ounces. But the actual meat portion is probably only like 2-3 ounces since most of the weight is the bone. If I’m hungry and don’t eat rice and other dishes with the meat, I can easily eat 5-6 servings by myself. I brought my mom and my aunt on this trip too so there are 5 of us. We’ll probably eat about 15 servings or more. I’m only going to reserve 10 servings of the unseasoned ribs so we can also sample the marinated ribs. This will probably be around $700 meal but remember there are 5 of us. And taxes are included in the price and you don’t pay any tip at restaurants in Korea so it’s not as bad as it seems for the quality you’re getting.

 

[nakedfrog]

I’m loving it but the time change and the jet lag is kicking my butt. Yesterday I was so tired that I passed out around 6 pm and woke up around 1 am dazed, confused, and hungry. Luckily there are streets filled with food stalls open just at night for people to drink and eat and restaurants open all hours. So I wondered out and ate some pork soup with rice and some blood sausage at around 2 am in the morning but couldn’t fall to sleep. It’s currently little after 6 am here and I’m eating fresh strawberries and drinking my 3rd cup of coffee. I’ve been up all night unable to sleep.

The strawberries here taste amazing. It’s basically like 98% similar to Japanese strawberries. Sweetest and the best tasting strawberries in the world are Japanese strawberries. Bar none. If you ever visit Japan or Korea, just eat strawberries. Strawberries in the US, Europe, and elsewhere in the world are garbage in comparison. And I’m not exaggerating. It’s literally day and night difference in taste. It’s too bad most people in the world will never know what real strawberries are supposed to taste like.


One serving is tiny. Single serving is two rib bones weighing around 200 grams or 7 ounces. But the actual meat portion is probably only like 2-3 ounces since most of the weight is the bone. If I’m hungry and don’t eat rice and other dishes with the meat, I can easily eat 5-6 servings by myself. I brought my mom and my aunt on this trip too so there are 5 of us. We’ll probably eat about 15 servings or more. I’m only going to reserve 10 servings of the unseasoned ribs so we can also sample the marinated ribs. This will probably be around $700 meal but remember there are 5 of us. And taxes are included in the price and you don’t pay any tip at restaurants in Korea so it’s not as bad as it seems for the quality you’re getting.

Ah, that makes a lot more sense then, I was imagining larger servings.

 

[ponyo]

One interesting tidbit about money and South Korea; this is the only country I visited where I got the cash exchange rate quoted on Google. Hungary was pretty close. I got 98-99% of the actual exchange rate at money changer in Budapest, Hungary. But here in Busan, the competition for USD cash is so fierce that I was able to get full 100% rate quoted by Google with no passport or documentation required. That's insane. So it's actually cheaper to bring USD cash and exchange it here than use ATM or credit cards in Korea. Even at various Korean banks, the spread is less than 2% to exchange US dollar to Korean Won. But you have to provide your passport and takes way longer at the bank. It's like 1 minute transaction at money changers with no passport required.

 

[TeeJay1952]

@ponyo Will Doordash deliver those treats?

 

[Fritzo]

Damn. Someone is eating well. Lobster, colossal shrimps, steak, scallops, octopus, lump crab, clams, and mussels. All at a fancy restaurant in beautiful St. Kitts. I'm jealous.

Go to the coast of Spain once. My vote for the hands-down best seafood in the world.