After our first day of touring Batan Island, we dropped by the market to buy something to cook for our dinner before heading back to Novita house – our home away from home in Batanes. Who said that our first day of Batanes adventure was over? It was just the beginning of a gastronomic adventure! While frying fish and cooking Pako Saute for our dinner, Tita Remy – the house caretaker arrived with 3 kilos of Lobster that Gail and Eric ordered for their pasalubong. Since we were’t due to fly back home for 3 more days and Gail wanted the lobster fresh when we get back to Manila, everyone decided to have a Lobster feast.

3 Kilos of Lobster

After boiling the entree with salt and water, it was time to shuck and serve the lobster. It was indeed a Lobster feast, there was alot of quiet intervals during our dinner due to the lobster overload. While the rest are still familiarizing their taste bud with the Pako (Wild Fern) Saute that I introduced them to, I was shucking the remains of what was once a lobster. For me, eating lobster is not a refined pastime specially if the shell is hard but this scary looking sea creature is justified by its delicious flavor.

Fried Fish

How do you cook live lobster?

Tita Remy taught me how to cook live lobster so here’s the step by step instruction :

Fill a large pot approximately three-quarters full of seawater or salted water (2 Teaspoon of salt per quart of water). Bring the water to a boil. Put in the live lobsters one at a time then cover and bring the water to a boil again. Then, lower the heat and simmer about 15 minutes.

Pako Saute

I’ve been very careful not to eat too much Lobster each time I visit Batanes since according to locals, its not good for hypertensive people. Contrary to belief though, I read that 100 grams of lobster meat only contains 98 calories, 21 grams of protein and only 0.6 of fat compare to chicken with 168 calories per 100 grams. I’m not trying to justify exessive lobster consumption, err everything excessive is bad.

Since the Spiny Lobster is not a government regulated seafood, you can easily order lobster in the wet market. Lobstering has been a stable source of income for some Ivatans although harvesting of this seafood is very much weather dependent. Each kilo can be traded to locals and tourist for just Php300. If you plan on buying lobsters for pasalubong, you may order the day before you leave the island to retain freshness since lobsters are better cooked alive or you may choose to buy it cooked.

South East Asian Airlines offers the fastest, safest and the most number of flights to Batanes. For fast and easy Batanes air ticket reservation call SEAIR hotline 02/ 849 0100 or you can book online by visiting www.flyseair.com

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