Timothy Cantwell

Prof. Miller

ENG 110

10 February 2023

My Favorite Meal

There is no better feeling than the hot sun on my face as I resurface for humid summer air coming out of the lake. Laying down that afternoon with no worry about when I’ll wake back up from my nap, and before long I’m being called into the kitchen to help prepare dinner. Everyone has something to do, getting ten people moving all at once is Nana’s job. My dad and grandfather always cook the lobsters outside, because my Nana can’t stand watching them go. My cousins and I run silverware, butter and salad to the table in preparation. Eventually the table is set, my cousins are all bickering, which implies that stomachs are empty, and the lobsters are race car red. Sitting down for a family meal with my cousins only comes in the summer months, so we take advantage of the weather by eating outside. Once the first claw is cracked, conversation starts, and memories are made.

Years ago my aunt moved herself and my four cousins to Massachusetts and from then on we would meet for holidays and summer weekends at my grandparents house on the lake, thirty minutes from the house my parents still live in. When we were kids, visiting my cousins was like a family out of any movie, boat rides and swimming, ice cream and board games. Now that I’m older and have strong relationships with all my cousins, I value the time we spent together as kids, and I think of them all as siblings. My parents’ perspectives are different from mine, my mom speaks about seeing family and enjoying the summertime and my dad is all about the lobster. When I asked my dad what he thought “It’s also my favorite summer treat, our yearly splurge: fresh boiled lobster, steamed clams, corn on the cob, salad, bread, and never enough lemonade”.

The family all sits down together around two large tables with red or blue pattern tablecloths, one table always lower than the other. Two large bowls sit at each end of the tables awaiting empty shells and raw corn husks infused with butter. The smell of seafood and summer air is whisked away as my grandfather opens the grill, taking off the burgers for all the hungry cousins who refuse to eat lobster, mostly because of the eyes looking back at them. Silver spears and crackers are placed around the table, although it’s inevitable that one set will work the best, and be passed around to crack the biggest claws. Knowing my Nana, the butter dishes have certainly been passed down for generations in our family and everyone has their own, lobster is too sacred in our family to use the same butter. Plates are loaded and somehow Nana always lands the biggest lobster, which probably has something to do with who passes them around. Rubber bands get taken off and at least one of them gets flung across the table, usually followed by yelling or whining. There sits everything in the room, picture ready after planning, traveling, cleaning, cooking and no lunch in anticipation of the best dinner of our summer. 

There are few ways to differentiate while eating a lobster, claws, tail, and legs make up a fairly simple meal. It is interesting to watch everyone in the family do it differently, for example all the legs come to me and my grandmother because others don’t have the patience to pick out each section. My dad, brother and Nana all love steamed oysters, so the rest of the family sits and watches them slurp down the slimy bottom dwellers they swear are delicious. Corn on the cob is passed around and is arguable the most symbolic food on the table. Grown no more than ten miles away on our favorite local farm, moulton’s corn is a sign that summer is in full effect and we take advantage of the heat by having it almost every night over the summer. My mother is a big advocate for corn over the summer and says this summer meal is also one of her favorites because “Summertime means were outside on the porch, in the sunny and warm weather with the family; we probably were out on the boat before dinnertime and nothing sounds better than that during this february freeze”. My mom loves the warm weather and everything that comes with it.  

Thinking about this meal in my past unearthed a lot of good memories about the summertime. I believe that this meal is so impactful because it is something that you can’t wait to have in the summer and you can dream about all winter long, the sun, the family, and the food. Speaking to my parents about this meal was special because the first thing they thought of was that me and all of my cousins used to hate having lobster, however as time passes things change. More of my fondest memories of my family come from just after the meal. Slowly, kids drift away from the dinner table, perhaps to shower after being in the lake, finish a card game left on the coffee table, or most commonly one of my cousins is surveying what kinds of icecream are left in the freezer just to declare that a trip to Deweys is necessary before 8 o’clock if we are going to survive through the evening. After we pack six kids, my aunt and Nana into the van and back home, the night has just begun. My parents would head home after doing twelve lobsters worth of dishes and like clockwork, the deck of cards would come out. Games and laughing would sustain until the youngest twins had to go to bed, then we would lay out on the porch and fear the bugs, darkness, and all sorts of monsters we created in our own heads. The next day you wake up and think very little of the time you were there, but on days like today I look back and remember every feeling vividly, remembering how fast time goes when you’re having fun, so that’s what makes up my most important meal.