Lobster Experience - Portland, Maine

My original plan to visit Portland, Maine had nothing to do with food. My husband happened to have a friend who moved to Maine about a year ago, and we wanted to visit his family.

To find a few good places to have lunch and dinner, as always, I searched New York Times Travel section, and googled Portland.

Guess what?

There were several articles from NY Times and Bon Appétit Magazine about food in Portland. And a few days before my trip to Portland, I received an e-letter from Tasting Table recommending Portland, Maine as one of the weekend food trip spots in America. Apparently, Portland, Maine is one of the foodie cities in the U.S.!

NY Times: 36 Hours in Portland, Me. (August 19, 2010)
Bon Appétit Magazine: Portland, Maine (October 2009)
Tasting Table: 48-Hour Power, Maine Course(June 13, 2011)

Portland truly has lots of good restaurants, bakeries, amazing seafood market and farmer's market. Yes, they are really good and impressive... but... you can find those kinds in New York City, as well.

Then, how about LOBSTER? You can probably find lobsters in your city, but not like in Portland. I think I ate at least five lobsters during the trip; steamed lobster, raw lobster (sashimi), lobster chowder, lobster roll, and in many other forms.

You can buy the most fresh lobsters in the harbor area. The best place recommended by Maine locals is Three Sons located in 72 Commercial Street. The store is right at the harbor and you can see the lobster boats unloading freshly caught lobsters. Ask them to steam your lobster with some corns.


Price board in Three Sons. All the soft-shell lobsters were sold out!


Right outside of Three Sons

Blocks away from Three Sons, there is another seafood shop named Harbor Fish Market, where you can buy oysters and fishes as well as lobsters.


If you really want to experience Maine lobster, you should definitely check out the lobster boat! There are several options for boat cruise in the harbor area, and one of them is "Lucky Catch" lobster boat.

Here are some sneak peeks of Lucky Catch lobster boat experience.

	First, you need to make some pockets of salted herrings, baits for lobster.
	Take out the old baits and...
	... replace with a new bait pocket.
	Push the lobster trap into the sea... and wait for three days.
	Captain is pulling up some lobster traps which has been down in the sea for three days.
	Waalaa! Here are lobsters!
	Captain is sorting out the small lobsters.
	1. Captain shows us how to measure the lobster to see if we have to free them. 2. Female lobster with thousands of roes! 3. A lobster which lost a claw... and you can see that it is being regenerated!
	We need to tie up claws for safety purposes!
	Some other things you can see during the trip. Seals, starfish and crabs.

After the lobster boat trip, I needed some snacks. Aha! I saw a cute hot dog stand near by the harbor. The hot dog stand even has a small sink for hand wash! In Maine, you can find this bright red colored hot dog called red snapper. The nice crispy, buttery toast bun with juicy red frank with mustard, it is a perfect Maine snack to finish up the Lobster Experience!




(Illustration source: hawkkrall.blogspot.com)