Is it possible to crave something you’ve never had before? I think so. I often read about foods on the internet and then I want them. I want them bad.

Lobster rolls are associated with the lobster state of Maine in the U.S. and in New England and the Canadian Maritimes, some McDonald’s offer lobster rolls as a seasonal menu item. They call it the McLobster!

We don’t get loster rolls here in New Zealand. I guess it’s because we don’t have lobster here, but we have plenty of things that could substitute. Crayfish would be the most obvious choice. Crab could also work if we were a nation that gobbled up crab.

I was craving a lobster roll, but being on a budget – crayfish can be $100kg – I considered making it with surimi instead. At $8kg, surimi is not going to break the bank. Surimi is pretty forgiving too so you can make the mix ahead of time, refrigerate it and eat it over a few days. I’d never do that with fresh seafood though. I always eat fresh seafood the day I buy it. But surimi is a bit different.

One pretend lobster roll was enough for me for dinner, but The Koala happily ate two.

I forgot add the chopped hard boiled eggs in the first time, but the second time we ate these, I mixed them in.

Faux Lobster Rolls

Makes 6 rolls

Ingredients

Lobster salad*
500g surimi (imitation crab meat)
3 big tablespoons of thick mayonnaise (like Best Foods)
1/3 red onion, diced
1 tablespoon capers
A good pinch of tarragon
Good pinch of salt
Lemon Pepper
A good squirt of American Mustard
2 boiled eggs, chopped.

Other stuff
Cucumber slices
Tomato slices
6 Buttered long rolls

Preparation

1. Mix all the loster salad ingredients together in a bowl
2. Arrange cucumber slices along 1 side of the rolls and tomato slices along the other side.
3. Stuff with lobster salad.
4. Serve with some kind of potato side dish. Could be fries, but I thought just boiled baby pototoes tossed in fresh herbs and butter would go nicely.

* In the U.S. they call white meat mixed with mayo, a “salad” and it is usually used as a sandwich filling. In NZ, chicken salad (raw vegetables) has more salad than chicken and is eaten with a fork.