March 3, 2006

A rose by any other name...

It seems so simple: lobster bites. Long John Silver's has added a new menu item "just in time for lent", as the press release says. It's a little cheap for lobster (like $3 instead of like $20), admittedly, so I assume that it's some sort of lobster bits that couldn't make it into high quality lobster for real restaurants - maybe a little worse for you, but there's nothing wrong with that. Little bits of lobster are still lobster, admittedly, just in a little smaller package. Right?

Maybe...

Turns out there's this thing called a langostino or, as it's sometimes known, a squat lobster or prawn. It's not exactly a lobster - kind of more a lobster. It's a distinction that's been fought in the past in a class action suit that went so far as to be covered by NPR. The suit is apparently still pending in court, but the FDA has approved Rubio's calling their burrito a langostino lobster burrito. From what I can find on Rubio's website, though, they just chose to not offer whatever the burrito's called anymore. Don't know if it was because of the lawsuit or declining sales or what, but I'll admit readily that after doing all this research into the issue, I'm really tempted to go wandering to LJS's to try the lobster bites to see if they're more shrimpish or more lobsterish.

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