Lobster Reunion

Last week, I returned home from a reunion with my college roommates. Today, I had another college reunion with our friend, Buzz. He lives in Houston, but he came to Oregon with his girlfriend who owns property in our neighborhood.

Buzz, whose real name is Charles, is a great cook. Of course, I didn’t appreciate his talents because in college my mantra was, “See food and eat it” without much thought whether it was gourmet or not. Once  he taught me how to cook something that I had never eaten—Maine lobster.

Buzz lived in a house with six other guys who rarely cooked. They had gotten a tip that someone was selling fresh lobsters about 30 miles away just across the Pennsylvania border in Port Marion. They brought back live lobsters and the party was planned for that evening.

We borrowed a huge pot to boil the water. Then Buzz showed me how to put them in, one by one. I heard a squeal and looked around to see who was there. Then he told me that it was the lobster squealing as it went into the boiling water. Woah, that was really cool. Later, I learned that it was steam escaping through the shell.

We ate a large quantities of ‘ster that night, dripping in lots of butter. I don’t remember anything else that we had with it, but over the last 35 years on the rare occasion that I cook lobster, I remember that very first time when I learned how to cook it.

Buzz wanted to take us out to dinner. For today’s gift, however, I cooked dinner for him and his girlfriend. We had fish fresh from the Pacific—Steelhead and King Salmon. Of course, it can’t compare to lobster, but it brought back memories and was a great reunion.

In Giving,

Robin