Stalking the Lobster Lunch Truck

It was time to cross off my categorized bucket list a prolonged bite from the succulent-looking lobster roll sold by the Red Hook Lobster Pound truck. The thing looks so tempting and delicious in amateur photographs that I knew I would tolerate driving in Washington, D.C. traffic, shrugging off its heat, and being among people more fashionable than I am. 

I must say here that not all pescetarians include shellfish in their diets. My husband, for example, eats only fish and no other seafood. Besides his allegiance to a macrobiotic diet, his awareness of shellfish and mollusks as scavengers keeps him from sucking on crab claws along with his wife. I opt to include as much seafood variety in my diet as possible as long as it’s sustainably caught and managed.  

Our Luck with the Truck

            So I called up my friend Lilian, who was instantly game for stalking the truck with me, and headed for the Metro Center (transit station) area of D.C. I had checked Red Hook Lobster Pound’s website mid-morning to learn the general area they planned to set up for lunch. The food trucks can’t be specific, though, until they get to the general area and find a place to park. Most folks follow their favorite food trucks on Twitter, which I consulted and found out that the truck was parked at 12^th & G streets northwest. We saw the long line (which we fully expected to find) before we saw the food truck.

The lobster lunch line at 12th and G streets

Line Politics

In line behind us a man, whose face looked severely sun-flushed, complained about the heat and his trouble trying to pin-point the truck’s location. I guess he doesn’t use Twitter or check the truck’s Facebook page. That would save him some shoe leather and more sun exposure. Then the girl in front of us let her boyfriend cut the line (understandable and OK) along with two of his buddies (inexcusable and definitely not OK). As we queued closer, a sweat-streaming, stocky man avoided the line altogether by paying the second-in-line person $15.00—the current cost of a lobster roll—to buy his lunch. Oh, well. Being a first-time lobster truck stalker, I supposed the regulars tolerated these line-cutting, buy-off behaviors.  

Lobster Nirvana    

      After the half-hour wait in line, we purchased our lobster rolls and drinks and walked five more blocks under the angry, urban sun toward the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery to sit and eat in their shady interior courtyard. 

The Courtyard

       Before biting in, we both admired the flawlessly cooked lobster that stuffed the toasted, split buns:

My Warm, Butter-Bathed Connecticut Lobster Roll

Lilian's Cool, Maine-Style Roll

My last bite of lobster had been in December, 2010 in Biloxi, Mississippi. The Biloxi bite was a spiny lobster, but I enjoy Maine lobsters best. Maine lobsters are caught sustainably by fisherman using wooden lobster traps and, according to the Maine Lobster Council, have been caught this way for more than a century. This method helps to preserve lobsters that are spawning and growing. These lobsters are returned to the Gulf of Maine. The Council also has pretty strict rules and regulations that govern lobster harvesting. The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch considers Maine or American lobster as “a good alternative” rather than a “best choice” seafood. That’s because the organization is still investigating whether lobsters are being overfished.  

            After finishing our lunch, we spent an hour or so strolling through the museum—quite a nice ending to our afternoon of lobster-truck stalking.