Not many people know that I’m afraid of the ocean. For good reason: there are so many things that can kill you, not least of which is the water itself.

With that said, there are fewer experiences more pleasurable than a view and a taste of the ocean: give me a bracing martini and a dozen briny oysters at a bar with a view of the water, and I’m in my element. Throw in a fingerful of tomalley straight from the cavity of a freshly steamed lobster, and I could leave this earth quite happy.

Menu No 3 is one you’ll need help with. It’s a rather tight fit. The tomalley needs to come to room temperature in the space of an hour before proceeding with the rest of the menu while also tending to the grill, which presumably is in your backyard and not in your kitchen.

Grilled Bread with Tomalley Butter

If spreading the liver-pancreas of a lobster on toast isn’t your thing, tomalley is also a handy thickener for soups and stews. Keep it in the freezer and then whisk it into a clam chowder or a potato and leek soup. It’ll give the soup an amazing umami flavor without being quite so overwhelming(ly fantastic) as tomalley on toast.

If you opt out of tomalley butter, do still make the grilled bread. It is truly one of the best ways to prepare bread; even day-old sourdough. It burns easily so watch it carefully, but the olive oil is heated to such a degree that it basically fries the bread, and why say no to fried bread with a sprinkling of salt.

Grilled Lobster

There’s no way to say this without sounding bourgeois, but growing up my parents would occasionally have Maine lobster overnighted to our home in Indiana. Very occasionally and for something special, but still. I remember my brothers and I giving them names and racing them across the kitchen floor before plunging them into boiling water. Boys.

Marginally less expensive is the lobster I buy in Chinatown. I no longer name them.

Hush Puppies

I wouldn’t ask you to fire up a pot of hot oil and fry something at home if I didn’t think it was worth it. But the high-low of lobster with hush puppies is just too perfect. And the hush puppies come together quite easily, which I say with complete sincerity. In theory even french fries can come together with relative ease, but even I don’t have the audacity to ask somebody to make french fries.

Green Salad

The dressing here is ostensibly a Green Goddess, so it’s versatile, which it needs to be because I ask you to make more than is needed. But for good reason. One happy use for it is to toss it with quartered cherry tomatoes and feta, then serve that on top of grilled swordfish. Or, toss it with butter lettuce and tuck it into a BLT.

Charred Vegetables

The vegetables here can be any mix of whatever might be in season, as long as it can withstand a flash grilling.

Olive Oil Gelato with Tomato Jam

A friend once described this as “the best thing I’ve ever had.” Admittedly that’s hyperbolic, but not by much.

I highly recommend making the tomato jam–kept in the back of the refrigerator it will keep for almost ever, no hot-water bath required. If you can’t be bothered to make the gelato, serve the jam on top of bodega-bought vanilla ice cream with a drizzle of fancy olive oil and a sprinkling of fleur de sel.

Wine Pairings by Radicle Wine
293 Greene Ave, Brooklyn 11238

First
chillable red, e.g. Premier Jus
fresh rosé, e.g. Succés

Second
skin-contact Italian, e.g. Cardedu Bucce Bianco
high-altitude Jaquère, e.g. Anno Domini “MCCXLVIII”

Last
bright and acidic sweet vermouth, e.g. Little City, on ice with citrus peel