The Hard Knock Life of Johnny Apple
Times cookie monster R.W. Apple Jr. is sick and tired of being forced to eat plain old Maine lobsters. So unsubtle! So indelicate! He prefers their "slim, pink, thin-shelled relatives," langoustines.
My wife, Betsey, and I must have eaten langoustines a dozen ways during 10 days in Brittany in June. For my money and hers, the simpler the better. These are undemanding creatures. All you need do is smear them with oil and roast them in a 450-degree oven for five minutes, or plunge them into rapidly boiling water for two to four minutes, depending on size, then cool them and eat them with a squirt of lemon, maybe a drop of Tabasco and mayonnaise - made, if you please, with a light olive oil. You extract the meat from the tail just as you do with lobsters.
The result is a towering pile of empty shells, a half-dozen in front of each diner (a few more for me, if they're small), contented smiles all around and a fusillade of compliments for the chef.
And remember: He gets paid for this.
