Crawling Up The Coast In Search Of Crustaceans

There's always room for more lobster. That's the conclusion of New York Times travel writer Glenn Collins following a "lobster crawl" that takes him from Gloucester, MA to Camden ME — an antiquing/leaf-peeping trip that morphed into an eating tour "thanks to the Northeast's extraordinary 2012 lobster glut." In Portland, he visits the Salt Exchange in the Old Port "and fell hard for the intense lobster risotto, highlighted by flavorful claw and body bits." Following a stop in Freeport for lunch at Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster Company (which he points out is now closed for the season), he finds a local favorite in Boothbay Harbor.

Lunch was at the snug 74-seat Ebb Tide (run by the same family for 38 years), all shellacked knotty pine and built-in booths. We were awed speechless by the lobster melt, a grilled Swiss-cheese sandwich on thick toasted, buttered bread, chock-full of lobster meat with mayonnaise.

· A Lobster Crawl From Massachusetts To Maine [NYT]