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Even A True Yankee Would Approve Of Vietnamese-Style Lobster

Steven Raichlen Los Angeles Times Service

I’m not what you’d call a Yankee, but I did live in Boston long enough (15 years) to acquire certain notions about the proper way to cook lobster.

Namely, you start with crustaceans that are alive and kicking. You boil them in sea water and serve them without ceremony: in the shell, with melted butter as the only condiment and your bare hands as the only utensil.

This is pretty much the way lobster is served at lobster pounds from Camden, Maine, to Cape Cod. A lobster pound is to New England what a hot dog stand is to New York, a rough and tumble eatery, usually within sight of the ocean, where the lobsters are cooked in huge cauldrons and served on plastic or paper plates at outdoor picnic tables.

You might get a bag of potato chips or a paper cup of coleslaw by way of an accompaniment. If the proprietor is a real Yankee, you’ll probably have to pay extra for the melted butter.

Oh, sure, I’ve had lobster in fancier dishes and settings. At restaurants in France, where it’s served a l’amoricaine (in a spicy tomato sauce, Amorique being the ancient name for Brittany). At temples of high gastronomy in this country, where I’ve had the delectable decapod tucked into raviolis, intricately arrayed in salads, smokily grilled and even pan-blackened.

But nothing I’ve experienced could top the lobster in the rough of my beloved New England. Or so I thought, until I met Binh.

Binh Van Duong (the first name is pronounced “Bing”) is the owner of two acclaimed Vietnamese restaurants and the author of a seminal book on Vietnamese cuisine, “The Simple Art of Vietnamese Cooking” (Prentice Hall).

Binh isn’t what you’d call a Yankee, either, although he has spent more than half his life in New England. He first worked at his sister’s restaurant in Stockbridge, Mass., then at a place of his own, Truc Orient Express in Hartford, Conn.

Binh, too, has certain notions about the proper way to prepare lobster. But, thank goodness, they’re not limited to the Yankee school of boil ‘em and eat ‘em.

I first tasted Binh’s Vietnamesestyle lobster at his four-year-old restaurant, Le Truc, in Boca Raton. (Truc is the Vietnamese word for “bamboo.”) The large round claws and smooth red shells belied the lobster’s New England pedigree, but the sauce was a far cry from the melted butter to which I was accustomed.

This crustacean had been neatly sheared into bite-size chunks, then zestily stir-fried with garlic and shallots. It arrived in a sweet-salty tomato sauce stung with chile flakes and redolent with Vietnamese fish sauce, and it was absolutely delicious.

When Binh prepares this dish, he cuts the lobsters up live - a procedure that’s humane (because the lobster is killed instantly), but disconcerting to most Americans.

In the following recipe, I’ve called for the lobster to be boiled for a few minutes to put it out of its misery, then cut up. The lobster probably has mixed feelings about the procedure, but it’s definitely easier on the cook.

Vietnamese-style lobster is easy to prepare, but you’ll need to know about one special ingredient: fish sauce.

Called “nuoc nam” in Vietnamese and “nam pla” in Thai, fish sauce is a salty, brown condiment made from pickled anchovies. Its strong, cheesy aroma can be off-putting, but the flavor quickly becomes addictive.

Fish sauce is highly nutritious, being rich in the B vitamins and protein. Southeast Asians use it as both a cooking ingredient and table sauce and Binh calls it the “very soul” of Vietnamese cooking.

Fish sauce can be found at Asian markets and in the ethnic food sections of some supermarkets. The best-quality fish sauce is sold in glass bottles.

I discovered that cooking lobster with fish sauce produces the same sort of briny succulence you get when you boil the shellfish in sea water. I have no doubt a real Yankee would approve of the following recipe.

Binh Van Duong’s Vietnamese-Style Lobster

Whenever my wife and I feel like a splurge, we prepare this recipe, which has been adapted from Binh’s book, “The Simple Art of Vietnamese Cooking.”

Lobsters:

2 (1 1/2-pound) lobsters

Salt

Sauce:

6 tablespoons chicken stock or bottled clam broth

1/4 cup tomato paste

2 tablespoons fish sauce

4 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes or to taste

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons canola oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 shallots, minced

To prepare lobsters, cook them in 1 quart boiling salted water in large, tightly covered pan until just beginning to turn red, 2 minutes. Transfer lobsters to colander and rinse with cold water until cool enough to handle.

Remove claws and break them in two at knuckles. Crack each claw section in several places with back of cleaver or heavy knife to facilitate eating. Remove tail section from body. (To do so, grasp tail in one hand, body in other and twist in opposite directions.) Starting at underside (the part with little legs), cut each tail in half lengthwise, using cleaver or large knife. Remove vein running length of tail. Cut each half in half widthwise. Lift carapace (top shell) off body and scoop out tomalley (liver - the soft green stuff). Reserve tomalley for sauce.

To prepare sauce, combine stock, tomato paste, fish sauce, sugar, hot pepper flakes and black pepper in small bowl and whisk until smooth. Whisk in tomalley. Set aside.

Heat wok (preferably non-stick) to smoking and swirl in 1 1/2 tablespoons oil. Add lobster pieces and stir-fry until almost cooked, about 5 minutes. (Shells should turn red, exposed meat pearly white.) Transfer lobster pieces to platter.

Add remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons oil to wok. Add garlic and shallots and stir-fry until soft and translucent but not brown, about 1 minute. Stir in sauce and bring to boil. Add lobster pieces and stir-fry until completely cooked and thoroughly coated with sauce, 3 to 5 minutes. Taste sauce for seasonings, adding salt, pepper or fish sauce as desired. Serve lobster at once with rice.

Yield: 4 appetizer or 2 to 3 maincourse servings.

MEMO: Steven Raichlen is a cookbook author and director of a cooking school in St. Barths.

Steven Raichlen is a cookbook author and director of a cooking school in St. Barths.