Showing posts with label new england. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new england. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

I am now an official New Englander

Last Saturday night Lincoln and I were invited to my boss's 30th wedding anniversary party. It was a traditional New England clam bake and while I didn't try any clams (or oysters), I did try lobster. Considering I don't eat seafood of any kind I thought this was a HUGE step. It wasn't too bad. I wouldn't rush out and eat it again but I'm glad I can finally say I've tried it.

Lincoln isn't a big lobster fan either so we decided that we would share one. When you go through the line you can stop at a station where a man in a big white apron takes a huge knife to crack your lobster in strategic spots. That was sort of crazy to watch.

Luckily we sat next to a very nice lady who eats lobster all the time. She taught me how to crack open the tail and get the meat out. She also showed me how to remove the "poop line". And yes, that's exactly what it sounds like.

The first picture below is our lobster in its entirety, although a little banged up by the man with the hatchet, on Link's plate. The second picture is of my plate with the lobster tail only. I love the fact that I had lobster, which is very New England, and corn on the cob, which of course is very Iowan, on my plate.


Friday, October 9, 2009

Speaking New England-ese

Me: Do you know where my brown shoes are?

Link: Oh, yeah. They're over here.

Me: Okay, I never would have looked there.

Link: Well, it's where I keep my cellar shoes.

Me: First of all, they're not my cellar shoes because I never go down there. Second of all, we don't have a cellar, we have a basement.

Link: What's the difference?

Me: I don't know. I just don't like the word cellar. It's too "New England".... like pocketbook and packie*. I hate the word pocketbook.

Link: No, if it was a cellah, it would be too New England.

Me: Good point.

*A pocketbook is pretty easy to figure out...it's what the rest of the country would call a purse. A packie is a package store. Still don't know what that means? A package store is a liquor store. So if you need alcohol you have to head to the packie. These New Englanders are kind of crazy that way.