How to Eat a Whole Maine Lobster

As many of you are already aware, Madfish Grill holds a Lobster Bake every Wednesday night during the summer. We have been doing this for years now, and it is always anxiously awaited by our regular customers. Our lobster bake is $21.99 and starts out with a cup of Kickin' Seafood & Corn Chowder, followed by a bowl full of littleneck clams, red potatoes, corn on the cob and a whole 1 1/4 pound Maine lobster. It's a lot of grub for just over twenty bucks.

While many of our guests already know how to eat their lobster, we find that there are a lot of people who have never undertaken this task before. I am here to teach you the proper way to dissect your lobster... not that tearing apart a sea creature to find every scrumptious little piece of meat could ever really be proper.

Before we dive into the dissection, I want to show you how we get your meal ready...

We start with a live 1 1/4 pound Maine Lobster. This particular little guy was a very angry lobster. I don't think he wanted to be the subject of our lesson. We steam the lobsters to order for a few minutes... till they are good & red.

We also steam the clams, and boil the corn & potatoes with some good fresh herbs.

Now, my friends, the lesson begins. I apologize in advance for some blurry pictures... Ben's gloved hands move fast, kind of like he knows what he's doing. For today's class, you will need a cooked lobster, crackers, scissors and a cocktail fork.

The first thing you want to do is take the tail off. Just grab a hold of it, move it back and forth a bit, and twist it off. Don't worry about the slimy green stuff in the body... it is tomally - the lobster's liver. Some consider this a delicacy, but we don't recommend eating it. We recommend ignoring it and continuing on...

Next you want to take the claws off. Again, grab hold and twist. This will leave you with the tail, 2 claws, and the head. You can twist off the 8 little legs at this point - I am not going to show you, but the best way to get at the sweet, tender meat inside is to bite down on the legs and suck the meat out.

Okay, on to the meat. To get to the tail meat, which many consider the best part of the lobster, hold the tail in the palm of your hand. and crush it. You want to hear a good crack.

Grab the shell on each side, flip it open, and pull the tail meat out in one big piece.

Time for the claws - take your crackers and crack the claw at the base of the small pincer.

Wiggle it around a little to separate the back end of the claw from the meat. Then, wiggle the pincers around a bit and pull out the rest of the meat.

If you are as skilled as our Ben, you can get every morsel of claw meat out in one piece. If you are not as skilled as Ben (like, say, if you are me), you might get to practice using your crackers a little more and you might have to use your cocktail fork to dig out the rest of the claw meat.

The knuckles of the lobster are quick and easy. Just use your crackers at each joint and on the shell in the middle of each joint. You might have to break out the scissors and cut through some of the shell in order to get the meat from each knuckle out in one piece.

All of that twisting, cracking and digging for meat and here is what you end up with! The best part about eating whole lobster is that you get to enjoy it as you go! If you want to come try out your lobster skills, we have live Maine lobster every Wednesday night!

Bete Noir - Classic Flourless Chocolate Cake

Mmmm. Flourless cake... in all of its fudgy goodness. There are many many flourless chocolate cakes out there, most of them tasty in their own right. Our version is called the Bete Noir. It is scrumptious and it is probably our most popular dessert. I am here to teach you how to make it.

Here's what you need:
36 oz unsweetened baker's chocolate (we use dark chocolate)
1.5 cups water
1.5 pounds butter
4 cups granulated sugar
15 egg yolks

Here's how you put it together:


Place chocolate and butter in a large mixing bowl.



Bring the water and 3 cups of the sugar to a boil for one minute. If your mixing bowl is metal, you can place it right on top of the heating simple syrup to begin the melting process. If your mixing bowl is plastic, that is okay... it will just take longer to melt in the next step.

Slowly pour the simple syrup mixture into the mixing bowl and stir until the chocolate and butter are completely melted.



Mix the 15 eggs yolks with the remaining cup of sugar.

Fold the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture until smooth and creamy.

Bake in a water bath at 375 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour, or until set. The deeper your water bath, the longer it will take to bake.

After baking, turn upside down on a cutting board and knock the whole thing out of the pan. This works really well if you have used parchment paper. Use a hot, clean knife to cut.


We serve our Bete Noir with raspberry & white chocolate sauces. Pretty!

Stoli Doli - Pineapple Infused Vodka

First off, before I dive into Stoli Doli pineapple vodka goodness, I want to announce that our newly designed website is up and running! Please please please check it out and tell us what you think! Along with the new site comes new email addresses... send any comments or questions to info@madfishgrill.com. If you receive our daily specials, they will now come from specials@madfishgrill.com. If you would like to receive our daily specials, let us know! Thanks so much to Webtivity Designs in Bradenton for making our website spectacular!

Okay, on to the alcohol. It is yummy. You would never think that it is straight vodka. That being said, we have a 2 drink limit on it. Kind of like the Bahi Hut's Mai Tais, except for we don't have some secret ingredient. It's just vodka and pineapple, baby.

Ben came up with the idea of making our own infused vodka, and this is how we did it...

We started with 4 Dole pineapples and 5 bottles of vodka. We used Stoli so we could call it Stoli Doli (get it??), but you can really use any vodka you'd like.


First, slice off the rind.


Then, cut 2 or 3 pineapples into thin slices. We cheated and used a meat slicer.

Once you have the pineapples sliced, stick them to the insides of your container, all the way up the sides. They have to be sliced pretty thinly for them to bend and stick. We used about 2.5 pineapples for this part. We sliced the remaining fruit more thickly by hand and threw them in. You want your container pretty chock full o'pineapple.

We threw the top of a pineapple in for good measure and good looks, then we filled 'er up.



Our finished product, in its proud new home behind the bar. Come on in to try it! $7.99 a glass, on the rocks or up. It really is tasty and flavorful... beats vodka and pineapple juice hands down!

If you make this at home... it will last a good couple of weeks. It is alcohol after all. We do recommend keeping it in the fridge though, when not in use.

Stay tuned for our next flavor - we'll make a new one when this pineapple vodka runs out! Any suggestions???

Lunch Specials - Thursday 6/4

Lunch Specials

Iced Tea Flavor: Black Currant

Quiche: Chicken, broccoli, tomato, Cheddar-Jack

Soup: Potato Bacon

Grouper Baja Salad

Blackened grouper served over a bed of lettuce, pico de gallo, cilantro slaw and cheddar-jack cheese, garnished with tortilla chips. Served with a side of chipotle ranch.

$10.99

Introducing the 10 for $10 Menu

Here it is... our 10 for $10 menu in full! This menu is in honor of our 10th Anniversary!

10 entrees for $10

Jerk Steak & Mushroom Salad
Marinated ‘jerk’ style beef tips quickly sauteed with mushrooms and a sweet &
spicy jerk sauce over mixed greens with craisins, hard boiled egg and tomatoes.

Andaloo
Shrimp, chicken and andouille sausage in a Marsala cream sauce with
honey, peppers and onions, served over rice.

Firecracker Shrimp
Shrimp stir fried with scallions, garlic, bell peppers, onion, tomatoes
and ancho chilis, tossed with linguini.

Seafood Bombay
Shrimp and scallops in a spicy yellow curry sauce, served over rice.

Mussels in Champagne Cream
PEI Mussels sauteed in a lemon-champagne cream sauce tossed with linguini.

Palm Island Chicken
Chicken breast marinated in citrus and tropical juices, finished with a
Caribbean BBQ glaze. Served with Jasmine rice and vegetables.

Jambalaya
Andouille sausage, chicken and shrimp simmered in a spicy red sauce over rice.

Seafood Portobello
Sauteed shrimp and scallops served over a grilled portobello mushroom cap.
Topped with lobster sherry cream sauce. Served with Jasmine rice and broccoli.

Cedar Planked Salmon
Salmon fillet roasted on a cedar plank and finished with a mango BBQ sauce.
Paired with sweet mashed potatoes and broccoli.

London Broil
Sliced Sirloin finished with a mushroom demi-glace, served with
loaded mashed potatoes and vegetables.

$10 Bottles of Wine
BV Century Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon
BV Century Cellars Chardonnay

$40.00 Dinner for Two
Price includes a bottle of wine per couple, one cup of soup or salad
per person, one entree per person and one dessert per person!

10 for $10 Menu!

10 Specials for $10

Happy Birthday to us! In honor of our 10th anniversary, we are featuring a special 10 for $10 menu! We have brought back some of the favorites from over the years and are offering them for a great deal. Come and re-try Palm Island Chicken, Andaloo, Firecracker Shrimp, Seafood Portobello and more! We will also have select bottles of wine for $10. And, to top it all off, you can turn it into a Dinner for Two for just $40. That $40 price includes a bottle of wine per couple, a cup of soup or small salad per person, one entrée per person, and one dessert per person!