Of all the flavours you think would be great as a Pop Tart, I’m willing to bet lobster is not one of them. Matt Dean Pettit, chef and owner of Rock Lobster Food Co. would like to change your mind. A staple of my teen and university years, you would not catch me eating a Pop Tart today. I suppose if you were going to take something as simple as a Pop Tart and glam it up, lobster would do the deed. And if someone is going to use lobster, it should be the guy who runs the popular casual and affordable seafood restaurant on Ossington Avenue.
Inspired by a crab rangoon he had at a cheap Thai restaurant chain, Matt decided to create his own version. In case you’re curious, crab rangoon is a North American Asian dish where real or imitation crab meat is mixed with cream cheese, wrapped in a wonton wrapper and deep fried. It’s about as authentically Asian as chicken balls.
Matt coarsely ground up several Pop Tarts with their bright red strawberry filling and shiny white icing to use as a coating. Fresh Nova Scotia lobster tails were split in two and mixed with mascarpone cheese to help bind everything together. Pressed into a log, Matt dipped it into an egg wash then crushed Pop Tarts. I will be honest; looking at the logs coated in flecks of berry red coating and chunks of hardened icing was not the most appealing. But I knew that inside this cheap and ghetto exterior, there was an interior of deliciously tender lobster.
With the Pop Tart crumbs crispy and brown out of the deep fryer, the “Pop Lobster Rangoon” creation looked not unlike chicken kiev. It actually looked exactly like a breaded chicken roll. But once Matt cut into it, the melted mascarpone cheese started to ooze out, and the large chunks of lobster meat reminded me of the prize inside. Served with a blackberry and pomegranate compote, the guys in the kitchen at Rock Lobster Food Co. deemed the experiment a success.
Follow Rock Lobster on Twitter: @RockLobsterFood
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