Learning Lobster at Hotel Christopher

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Jun 22nd 2010 at 10:01AM

Growing up in New England, I've cracked into more than a few lobsters, ranging from the downright puny to a mighty 7 pounds. This continued experience with creatures (formerly, by the time they reached my table) dwelling off the costs of Nova Scotia and Maine, ingrained in me a baseline for lobster that has guided my expectations ever since.

So, as the waiter at the Hotel Christopher on St. Barths explained the evening's specials last week, the langouste, which he translated for us as "lobster," caught my attention. Recalling my travails with French in high school and college, I vaguely remembered that Jean-Paul Sartre writing of a hallucination in which he fled an "homard." The different word for lobster led to the obvious question: "What's the difference?"

Christian Langlade, who owns Hotel Christopher with his wife, Sandrine, explained that homard" refers to the tasty resident of northern waters, the creature I cracked open throughout my childhood – and which tormented the French existentialist. "Langouste," however, is the lobster found in the Caribbean, sans claws yet certainly delightful to chomp.