Recently I was invited to go to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for a vacation with my in-laws. They were providing the condo and had won the place in a raffle for charity. My husband and I decided to go, as this was such a spectacular offer and I had never been there.
We’d have a kitchen and would be cooking some of our meals, so I decided that I would bring lobster with me. This involved a visit to the local lobster pound.
At the pound, I asked how much it would cost to send lobster meat to Wyoming. The woman behind the counter said I probably couldn’t afford it, and I agreed – but she had an even better suggestion.
She said, “You are going by plane, aren’t you?” and I replied, “Yes.”
“Well, then,” she said. “You could bring it with you.”
I thought she had forgotten how serious security is these days and how much gets confiscated at the airport. We were flying out of Boston, and I had seen bottles of suntan lotion, bottles of water and other things taken from the people going through the dreaded security.
Her brilliant suggestion was to take an insulated lunch bag and put the 2 pounds of lobster meat in that bag. The other cooling agent in the bag would be frozen vegetables – in particular, the ones that are in block form like chopped spinach. These blocks would be put under and on top of and against the sides of the lobster meat. The meat was to be picked up the morning that we were leaving, along with the vegetables.
We were leaving Boston in the afternoon, so our morning was spent going to the grocery store and then to the lobster pound. I wrapped the final package with my raincoat, put it in my carry-on bag and we were off.
I was a little nervous as we went through security, but the carry-on sailed down the chute and through the X-ray machine as they checked my knees, and they were more concerned about my laptop than about my lobster meat. Upon our arrival, the contents of our insulated lunch bag were still cool, and the meat made great lobster rolls and then lobster quiche. My hostess gift was a grand success.
I heard from a friend that she had sent lobsters to the Midwest to thank someone who had done her a big favor. When she didn’t hear from the friend, she wondered what had happened.
Finally she called the friend and asked what had happened. The friend responded, “Oh, I am so sorry. I have to tell you that when the lobsters came, they were all brown and green and we had to throw them away.”
Not everyone knows that the crustaceans do not come red as a beet.
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