When it comes to buffets, such as in The Bellagio, the seafood dishes take center stage for good reasons. Beef, pork and chicken dishes can easily be ordered from restaurants but seafood dishes require a certain finesse in preparation.
For this reason, you may want to brush up on your table manners when eating lobsters and shrimp in restaurant. In your home, you can eat them any which way you want but dining out has its own set of rules.
Eating Lobsters the Right Way
Keep these tips in mind when eating possibly the most luxurious seafood in town.
- Twist the large claws first before opening them with a nutcracker. This will prevent the lobster’s juice from squirting out of the shell and onto your shirt.
- Use the small lobster fork to extract the meat.
- Twist the smaller claws using your fingers. Just quietly suck the meat from its cavity in the shell.
- Remove the tail from the body by using twisting motions with your fingers. Follow with breaking off the flippers.
- Use the small lobster fork to pull the meat from the tail. The small fork should also be used from lifting the meat after the tail has been split apart.
- Dip the large tail pieces into the sauce. Use your knife instead of fingers.
- Crack the back shell and extract its meat before eating. Again, use your fork.
- Eat the roe and tomalley directly from the body using your fork.
You should rinse your fingers in the bowl for this purpose. You must also place the discarded shells in another bowl.
Eating lobsters can be an art in itself. Don’t worry if you can’t get it right the first time. There’s always the second and third and so on and so forth to master it.
Eating Shrimp the Right Way
You can eat shrimp either with your fingers or with a small seafood fork. This depends on the method of service – use your fingers for a casual service and your fork for a formal one.
Keep these tips in mind as well.
- When the tail’s attached, hold the shrimp by its tail and eat it with your fingers. Place the discarded tails on a plate.
- When the shrimp’s served on a toothpick, just dunk it into the sauce using the toothpick. After dunking, immediately place the shrimp into your mouth. Don’t re-dip your shrimp into a shared sauce.
- When the shrimp is fried, eat it with a knife and fork.
Both lobsters and shrimp can be messy to eat in certain circumstances. You shouldn’t stuff them into your mouth or hurry up with its preparation for this reason.