Lobsters in America! Featuring 'Legal Seafood', 'New Star Seafood' and 'Triple Z'

When we think of lobsters (at Jumbo seafood, or in Malaysia/other parts of Asia), what do we think of?
Lobsters from Myanmar Hockee Company LimitedAnd for Americans, when they think of lobsters, what do they think of?
Lobster from Maine's Robinhood Marine CenterThe top lobster with the thorny exoskeleton is known to wikipedia as the spiny lobster, whereas the bottom lobster with the smooth exoskeleton is just known as lobster. I think I have had lobster (the one with the smooth exterior) at some buffet in a Singapore hotel. Although I appreciate their efforts to import these crustaceans to Singapore, I didn't like the taste then. Its flesh was cold and bland, and the tips of the claw meat was extremely salty. Possibly because it was boiled in salt water/ sea water which gathered at the claws, over-marinating it with salt. My mom and aunt used to buy live Spiny Lobsters from the Yishun market (cleaned and toasted/steamed at home with garlic and pepper) and they tasted THE best!

By the way, besides the textural differences in their shells, there is another significant difference between the 2 types of lobsters. These 2 lobsters are actually not closely related.
Can you guess what the big difference between the spiny lobster and the true lobster is?

I combined the spiny lobster's scientific drawing with the true lobster's scientific drawing side by side for you.
Yes you guessed it. The lobster we commonly eat in Asia has no claws! Its geneology is closer to the crayfish than the true lobster! ;-)

Living here, I learned to appreciate the lobster, and it has become one of my American favourites. It tastes better probably because it's caught locally and the lobster did not have to take an airplane to Singapore! lol... And possibly because the lobster was prepared better in America.

This is a good thing because my hubby is an extreme gourmet crustacean lover. Lovingly, I aspire to cook the Singaporean Chilli Crab for his birthday this year, and have bought a Prima Taste pack for the occasion. He loves lobsters, crabs, and prawns, and would eat them everyday if he could. Siren:*Beep! Beep! Cholesterol alert! Wife to moderate husband!*

3 SEAFOOD RESTAURANTS' LOBSTERS WE'VE TRIED AND LIKED

#3 Legal Seafood

Legal seafood has branches in a number of states, and promises quality and freshness. We usually order Lobster, and it is pretty pricey (but that's how restaurants are, right?). I don't remember the exact price, but I am pretty sure that one 2.5lb lobster we ordered is US$60+++.

Another thing we usually go for is the Clam Chowder! I remember reading the Legal Seafood Menu which mentioned that their award winning New England Clam Chowders, made with Cape Cod Clams, were served for every US President Inauguration dinner since the 1980s! And yes, I think they served it this year too, for the Inauguration of US's 44th President, Barack Obama. :-)

Our large 2.5lb lobster, served hot and plain with melted butter on the side as a dip.
Hubby was proud of being able to remove the meat of a whole lobster claw unspoiled. This was a different visit to a Legal Seafood outlet in Washington D.C. This lobster was between 1.5lb-2lb .

#2 New Star Seafood Restaurant
New Star Seafood Restaurant is the largest seafood restaurant along Avenue U of Brooklyn that we know of. They were selling two 1lb lobsters for $27-$30 (They call it the Twin-Lobster Special, and prices may fluctuate) You get to choose how the lobster is prepared. We recommend lobsters stir-fried with spring onions and ginger because it is reaaaally good. The lobsters were pre-friend in a batter, then stir fried with thin slices of ginger, scallions and some slightly thickened soy sauce. Although I ranked it #2, my hubby ranks this restaurant's lobster dish #1 because he likes the added batter. Well too bad hubbs, this is my blog. ;-) Hahaha!

#1 Triple "Z" Chinese Restaurant
Well after eating at New Star Seafood Restaurant, we realised that almost every Chinese restaurant along Avenue U were also selling 'Twin-Lobster Specials'. Could there be some kind of Lobster War going around here?! The cheapest we saw was $19.90 for two lobsters at this restaurant nearest to the Q train station on Avenue U and we decided to have a go.

There are three ways of cooking the two 1lb lobsters. Ginger with Scallions, Fermented Black Beans with Scallions, or Cantonese Style. We went back to this restaurant often and have tried all three styles. So in case you're wondering, Cantonese Style is just minced pork, black beans and scallions stir-fried with 2 Lobsters. Our recommendation is once again Ginger and Scallions, it being the tastiest.

Now, why did I rank Triple "Z"'s Twin-Lobsters as #1 and New Star Seafood's #2? Not because the price of the lobsters are 30% cheaper than New Star's. It is because the lobsters were not covered in batter, and were stir-fried as is! I like it that way. With less flour to your dish, you can taste the freshness, and the sweetness of the lobster meat. I also liked that the ginger slices were thicker, as I love eating the ginger and the scallions although they were usually meant to be accompanying garnishes!

Twin-Lobsters with Ginger and Scallions. Triple "Z" loves to position the 2 lobster heads side by side! This is what Twin-Lobsters Cantonese Style looks like. Lobster heads side by side again.

So yup, that's all for my top 3 recommendations for Lobsters here in America & NYC. I hope you enjoyed knowing more about these crustaceans, and if you are here looking for a value-for-dollar meal for two and have $30+ (just in case the price increases and you need to tip too, remember?), take the Q train down to Avenue U!

For your amusement, I would like to end this post with some interesting Triple "Z" experiences. You will not see this following offer when you get there because this offer was taken down after a few days.

What?! Crabs and rice for US$3.95? Two Lobsters for $19.90 is already a crazy price, and now this?! This is not one, but two crabs for $3.95! Stir-fried with fermented black beans with scallions. This is not the Sri-Lankan Crab that we commonly eat in Singapore. It's more like Flower Crab. Look at that roe! Woohoo!Below is another funny experience on a seperate occasion at Triple "Z". One day, I thought I found half a crab claw almongst our Twin-Lobster dish ... ... My husband was so sure that it is Lobster, and that particular Lobster had a different claw. But it looked so much like part of a Sri-Lankan Crab Claw to me leh... What do you think?

NYC's Doughnut Plant

This will probably be one of many food entries I’ll be posting up soon. So look out for them!

I’m not a doughnut fan, but via some e-letters with my cousin (many thanks!), I figured that I ought to try some famous ones since I’m in NYC. He asked about this shop that he saw on television with the black sign board outside it. It’s supposedly “Famous" with branches in Korea. Wow. If there are doughnuts famous enough to get TV air time in the tiny island of Singapore, I should try some! Hee. ;-D

As one of my friends gave me and my husband a book ‘Time Out 1000 Things to Do in New York (Time Out Guides) (Paperback)’ before we left Singapore, I remembered reading some thing about doughnuts in there. A quick flip, and there it was on number 975-978! It listed Alpha Donuts (45-16 Queens Blvd, Sunyside, Queens), The Donut Pub (203W 14th St), Doughnut Plant (379 Grand St), and Peter Pan Bakery (727 Manhatten Ave, Brooklyn). Since there were only 2 in Manhatten, a quick google identified Doughnut Plant as the one my cousin was talking about. Mark Israel, the owner of The Doughnut Plant was born into a family who had an affinity with baking for the past 2 generations, and found original recipes for making doughnuts left behind by his grandfather.

The Shop (image from Rob Tallia)

From the outside, it looks ordinary and small. Stepping inside, the area to serve customers is possibly about 12 to 20 sq ft (like 3 by 4, or 4 by 5)? There was some renovation going on inside. I wonder if there’s gonna be some sort of expansion? Maybe an area for customers to hangout? Hahaha…. That would be nice, because currently I have to sit on a bench or stand outside the shop to munch on a doughnut – luckily I was wearing something warm. The man who served me was chubby and dark-skinned. I can’t tell what his race is though. As I was deliberating what to buy, I decided to ask him for his opinion on the doughnuts. Apparently, he thinks that by telling me which doughnut is nicer, sales of the other doughnuts would be affected. :-/ “You’ve got to buy to try it for yourself lady! It’s just doughnuts, not life insurance! These are top of the line doughnuts!” Well dude, it’s not about the money, I just wanna limit the calories consumed. So fine, I bought 4 doughnuts. The Square peanut-butter glazed with strawberry jam filling, the Valrhona Chocolate, the Blackout, and the Rose Petal Doughnut.

The Doughnuts
I don’t have a picture of the square peanut butter glazed with strawberry jam filling, because I ate it before I reached home – I was hungry! The glaze was too sweet for my liking, but all glazes are like that right? And it’s not peanut-y enough. I’d like a richer peanut butter taste please! The jam was nice, especially when I researched that they make their own fruit jams without preservatives. Health-conscious mah! Hehe. ;-) Btw, they have 2 main types of doughnuts. The yeast type, and the cake type. This square doughnut was the yeast type, costs $2.75, and it is the size of one’s hand.

The Valrhona Chocolate is another example of a yeast type doughnut. You can tell by the taste, and the holes in the doughnut-bread. But once again, I’m not a big fan of the glaze, it’s just too sweet. I’ve read raving reviews of the Valrhona Chocolate, but I really can’t take the sweetness leh. The Valrhona lacked the chocolate-y taste I was hoping for. I probably won’t buy it again. I would guess that this doughnut costs $2.75 too, hand-sized.

The Blackout is a cake-type doughnut. And my, this one is great! It’s like a moist-chocolatey-cake-plus-cookie-crumble, and mine appeared to have some liquid chocolate in it. Not sure if it was chocolate sauce, or just uncooked batter. But it tastes heavenly! It’s sweet of course, but not over whelming like the glazed ones. I loved the richness of the chocolate, and it’s natural mildly bitter taste. Definitely better than the Valrhona Chocolate if you’re a chocolate lover. The Blackout costs $1.75 I think. I think there is the bigger version of it, but I bought the small version (palm sized) because I didn’t want to eat too much.

The Rose Petal Doughnut is a mother’s day special item. This is a glazed cake-type doughnut. And wow, the taste is wonderfully fragrant. It’s weird that what I tasted is “fragrance” but it’s true. When I take a bite of it, I smell roses. As mentioned previously, I don’t really like glazes (like the Peanut Butter glazed and the Valrhona Chocolate) because it just tastes like a coat of sugar, but this one is good because of the roses. And yeah I might buy it again. My guess is that it is $2.50. A larger sized one would probably cost $3.50.

Pros
- Their cake-type doughnuts are very well made! I think this is where they excel!
- According to their website, all doughnuts are trans-fat free, preservative free, and contain no eggs and no artificial flavorings. All glazes are made with fresh fruit and fresh roasted nuts! Now that’s something notable.
- Doughnuts I’ve seen are usually glazed at the top half. But in Doughnut Plant, it seems that most doughnuts are covered on both sides. A cashew nut doughnut has glaze and cashew nut bits on both sides.
Cons
- Their yeast-type doughnuts are similar to most doughnuts I’ve eaten, not special.
- The glaze is too sweet for my liking.
- These doughnuts are much pricier than any other doughnuts I’ve bought in NYC or in Singapore. Yikes...Other than the cake-type Blackout I’ve tried today, the rest don’t really seem worth it. LOL

All in all, it is highly likely I would not be visiting the Doughnut Plant often, because I’m health conscious and it’s just too much sugar! Unless I have a chocolate craving… the small palm-sized Blackout would be apt.