It is becoming more and more rare to find fresh Greek spiny lobsters or are they really what we know as lobsters. True they are harder to find these days even though they are similar to the “true lobsters” in terms of overall shape and having a hard carapace and exoskeleton, but the two groups are not closely related.

Spiny lobsters can be easily distinguished from true lobsters by their very long, thick, spiny antennae, by the lack of claws on the first four pairs of walking legs. Many spiny lobsters produce rasping sounds to repel predators. This is done by rubbing the “plectrum” at the base of the spiny lobster’s antennae against a “file” and this is done to ward off predators.

The cooking of the lobster is the key to a good firm and colorful lobster. The two techniques I suggest are BBQ wrapped in foil or my preference, cooking in a pot less water. I scorch the lobster after killing it by piercing it in the cranial area. I then remove the body and carefully maintain the tails in order to keep them intact and without disturbing them.  It is important not to cut the tail into pieces until you cook it or you lose all the juices.

After I separate the two, body and cranial, I then cook them separately. They require different preparations. Lastly I tried using ginger and honey as a glaze to add the lobster to a short pasta with fresh tomatoes that had been pulverized and passed through a sieve. The results are spicy after I added the fresh chili pepper at the end.

Picture Above: This is a picture of lobster I cooked on the grill and de-shelled for my guests. It was consumed as is with some lemon and virgin oil.