These ain't your fake "lobster" AKA shrimp at a cheap Chinese buffet

[theking]

No shell, big shock: Maine lobster rolls fetch record prices this season

May 29—Lobster roll prices are breaking records this season, but the value of Maine lobster meat is only one ingredient in a complex inflationary recipe.

The prices lobstermen are getting at the dock for their catch are down from this time last year, in part because of uncertainty in the global market. Restaurant and lobster shack owners say that while the price of lobster is the biggest factor, there is more that goes into the cost of a roll.

Justin Snyder, dock manager at Beal's Lobster Pier in Southwest Harbor, where a 4.5-ounce lobster roll was going for $41.99 on Wednesday, said the price of lobsters on the dock steadily increasing over the past five years has had a big impact on the cost of producing Maine's signature summer dish.

The state's lobster prices reached record highs last year. Maine lobstermen landed 108 million pounds with a record value of $725 million. Southwest Harbor is one of the most competitive harbors in the state where lobstermen can get the highest prices for their catch, Snyder said, but that cost makes up only part of the equation in pricing a lobster roll.
"We're experiencing the same thing that everybody else is experiencing in the U.S. right now," he said. "Everything's more expensive: Plates are more expensive, buns are more expensive, butter is more expensive, labor's more expensive, and the lobster industry is not immune to those economic conditions."

AVERAGE ROLL PRICE TOPS $30

Last week, the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram surveyed 16 lobster shacks and restaurants and found the average price was $30.54 for a roll, though the sizes are not uniform. Individual prices ranged from $15.95 for a traditional 4-ounce roll at the Zack Shack in Thomaston to $47.99 for a jumbo roll with a full pound of lobster meat at Boothbay Lobster Wharf.

Red's Eats, off U.S. Route 1 in Wiscasset, was selling its popular lobster rolls for $31 apiece Wednesday. Deborah Gagnon, one of the owners of the roadside eatery, believes it's worth every penny.

I was on that same "Route 1" and enjoyed the real deal:

[VillainousHero]

what's caviar prices these days?

[theking]

I should ask them Asian sturgeon poachers in the Delta...regard ing "caviar"..

[theking]

Look at this FAKE "lobster" fail here  :