Lobster Used to Be 'The Cockroach of the Sea' and Only Fed ... | 台北市立動物園資訊網

2014年2月13日—Whensomeonesayslobstersomewordsthatmightcometomindaredelicacy,fancy,luxuriousandmostdismally,marketprice.However ...

When someone says “lobster” some words that might come to mind are delicacy, fancy, luxurious and most dismally, market price. However, it wasn’t always this way. Formerly regarded as “the cockroach of the sea” and fed to servants, migrants and even people’s cats, lobster was the laughing stock of seafood. Regarded as a dish fit only for the poor, even having lobster shells in your house was looked upon as a sign of poverty. Yet today lobster is seen as the poshest of the posh, the cousin of caviar. So, how the hell did this happen?

It starts with industrialization. When the railways began to expand across America, transportation managers realized that if no one apart from people who lived on the coast knew what lobster was, trains could serve it to inland passengers as if it were a rare, exotic item. This plan seemed to work as people started demanding lobsters beyond the railways and it didn’t hurt that around this same time in the late 1800s, chefs discovered lobsters t...