Different from the lobsters we know today, more than 100 years ago, lobsters were not the "dragon among shrimps". People called them "sea cockroaches" and were used by slaves, inferiors, prisoners and on the battlefield. A staple food for soldiers at war. The status that lobster has today has a legendary history

Lobster now plays an important role in society. On a table of high-end meals, lobster is mostly at the center of the table. If it were personified, it might be a tattooed man who drives an SUV, wears a gold chain, and has a crew cut.

To us people, this thing is not cheap, and in the food world it means "not within the three realms, but out of the five elements". When you open a menu, every dish is clearly priced, except for lobster and a few hard seafood dishes, which are marked with "current prices." If you could put a lobster on your dining table tonight, you would surely feel both distressed and happy eating it. But 100 years ago, unless your family was running out of food, low-grade food like lobster would never be on the table.

Thinking back to those days, the white immigrants who had just arrived in Massachusetts by boat lived in very poverty. With no food to eat, they walked through the lobsters washed up on the beach every day... to dig for Guanyin soil to eat. Although this Guanyin soil tastes like glutinous rice after being mixed with water, it is soil after all, and people cannot digest it if they eat too much. These white immigrants who can't shit, still can't let go of their wealth, and are determined not to eat lobster. Why? Because at that time, lobster was the food of slaves and prisoners.

Further forward 400 years, an official named William severely humiliated the newly arrived white indentured servants (a kind of white slaves in the British North American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries) with lobsters. Labor force. Commonly known as "white slaves"), he held the big lobster and looked at the white slaves with contempt and said: "I'm sorry, it's hard here, you can only eat lobsters and drink cold water."

This The lobster insult had such a negative impact that it completely ignited the anger of the new immigrants and led to widespread riots. The colonial government had to issue a rule: indentured slaves could not eat lobster more than three times a week.

In Old English, spider was written as "Loppe", and the word "Lobster" for lobster was based on this word. It is regarded as the lowest creature in the ocean, like a small insect on land. Therefore, at that time, Americans would never eat unless they had to. Even if they did, they would not be seen, and they would often cry after eating, wondering how they were so miserable.

In the 19th century, some processing plants thought that since this stuff could be eaten and the cost was low, they might as well make it into cans. Therefore, the relatively cheap canned beans at that time cost 5 cents a pound, and this canned lobster meat only cost 11 cents, and they were all for cats. At that time, there were also large lobsters on the market, but they were all dead.

The story of lobster is a bit like that of hairy crabs during the Republic of China. They all went from being penniless to having a steel seal on their shells and each one wearing an anti-counterfeiting ring.

Unlike hairy crabs, lobsters have a legendary story behind their magnificent transformation. As we just said, giant lobsters are so rampant that only slaves and prisoners will eat them. A local cannery in Maine canned it to feed cats. At that time, Boston lobsters under 5 pounds were considered defective, but the development of industry led to a reduction in the number of large lobsters. Later, smaller lobsters also met production standards.

Industrial progress has led to smaller lobsters, but it has not affected the supply, nor has it increased the value of lobsters. But after the railroads developed, things started to get interesting. The conductor discovered that the passengers from the mainland had never seen this thing before. Wouldn't it be a way to make money if he said this thing was delicious and sold it to them on the train?

The honest mainland passengers were full of praise after eating this thing that was regarded as garbage by seaside people in the car. Not only did they like this seafood, they also gave it to their relatives and friends on the spot. In this way, lobsters from the sea followed the railway on the land and entered thousands of households. In 1880, chefs discovered that the lobster must be eaten fresh, so just like today, the lobsters seen in the hotel were all alive.

Although Americans ate lobster as a salad after dinner at that time, the demand has indeed increased significantly, and the price increase is natural.

In 2006, the writer Motherjones wrote this passage in an article:

? "In 1920, the price of lobster reached its peak. The economic crisis made people unable to afford it, so the lobster market collapsed again. Going into decline. Canned lobsters became inferior goods again and were supplied to the soldiers to supplement their protein. In 1944, the American soldiers were eating canned lobsters to fight the Germans. Because of the war, the lobsters had a chance to reproduce. Although the recovery of the U.S. economy has gradually restored the price of lobster, it has not escaped the fate of inferior goods. During the Great Depression, poor people in Maine had to go to the sea to fish for lobsters, and their children took them with them the next morning. Lobster meat sandwich. When I went to school, I would be laughed at by my classmates.”

During World War II, there was a food shortage, so lobster was the only thing that was not in limited supply. What they didn't expect was that not only did the Americans not feel miserable after eating it, but they finally tasted the true meaning of lobster. In the 1950s, lobsters had completed their transformation from "sea cockroaches" to "lobsters". It is common for Hollywood stars to eat lobster. Wedding banquets of wealthy families must include a large lobster. Even John Davidson Rockefeller, the first billionaire in the 19th century, invited everyone to eat lobster.

The "Forbes" website once announced a list of the "15 richest people in American history", and John Rockefeller finally topped the list. Interested students can go read his life.

Today, if you go to the beach for a vacation and eat lobster, 8 out of 10 people will have to post on Moments. For ordinary people who work from 8 to 5, there is nothing worse than this. Lived. But there are still people who sneer at lobster, and there are also orthodox Jews who think lobster is unclean and refuse to eat it. But Americans have long forgotten how they disliked lobster. We have to thank the "bad" cooks on the train, and even more thank the wealthy people who don't know that lobster is "trash". Otherwise, how could we have discovered the deliciousness of Boston lobster.

Although I can’t afford it.