A tribute to Tug Boat

Perusing and sampling the New Amsterdam Market is a weekend favorite of ours. This past Sunday, local seafood vendors were highlighted. My husband declared that we must get a lobster. At $10, these are a steal!

After committing, we noticed...they were alive. A detail which, if we hadn't been so excited about trying to cook a lobster for the first time, we would have put 2 and 2 together. We started chatting with the vendor and realized it was Luke's Lobster!

I consider this a celebrity meeting...best lobster rolls I've ever had hail from his shops and food truck around the city. The first time I tried them, I went three days in a row after. I follow him on Twitter. (He tweeted the above pic!) Luke introduced us to the whole family behind the lobster business and suggested we should name our bug. Meet Tug Boat.

I'll admit we struggled a bit with Tug Boat's sad lobster eyes peering at us from our fridge. Luke had instructed us to keep him somewhere cold "like the trunk of your car or outside." Like most Manhattanites, we lack a car...the fridge it was. Every time we opened the door to get a beer: Tug Boat. Eventually we accepted that it was time. Our tummys were rumbling.

We boiled the water and dropped the guy in. Chris admitted, "This is so traumatizing...well it's good practice for the apocalypse, when we have to hunt our own food...I need a hug."
...
We quickly got over our killing, as we dipped the meat into butter and lemon. Delightful!