WE'RE MAINE-LY HERE FOR THE LOBSTER

The next morning, Eunice and I had breakfast at the hotel. We perused the menu and decided on the lobster and crab eggs Benedict.

We were then off to Richmond about an hour north of Peckland. John Hathaway is the President of a Shucks, a company that shucks lobsters. He takes the live lobsters and puts them in a machine that uses water pressure to separate the meat from the shell. It's probably the most humane way of killing a lobster.

You now have the raw meat to remove from the shell and ship it to restaurants. Many chefs, especially from overseas, don't want frozen cooked meat. In other words, when you order a lobster tail, you are not getting a fresh lobster, unless the restaurant has live lobsters floating in a tank. The same goes for dishes such as lobster macaroni and cheese or lobster Thermidor.

So, for instance, the restaurant will purchase frozen raw lobster tails in the shell that will cook easily (best poached at a low temperature in butter). I watched the process and engaged in removing the shell to get the raw meat. You can easily view the assembly line of packing the lobster tails...or as I named it, the Retail area.

Lobsters can be gotten whole, or halved as well as buying a one pound package of meat from the claws and knuckles. Think lobster tacos and lobster bisque.

You can't dine there so we were off to a restaurant called Reds Eats located on Water Street in Wiscasset, a town noted for antiquing. It's a corner shack with tables and chairs to eat outside or take it to go. The lines are really long but we managed to cluck our way to the owner's heart and get served. We got more than one and half pounds of lobster meat on a roll. They don't have a website. The phone number is 207-882-6128.

Back to Peckland to the area known as Cape Elizabeth to see what we hear is the most photographed Lighthouse.

The next day being the last, we were still looking at lobster rolls. We went to the Portland Lobster Company, the only restaurant that's right on the wharf. Had a beer and met up with our friend Merle. She shared her lunch with us. Then we met the guy who runs the place. Cool. Since Merle was nice enough to share, we got her a t-shirt.

Time to leave Peckland and back to New Yolk.