In the heart of the food-heaven which is Chelsea Market, you'll find The Lobster Place. If you go early in the morning there'll be some serious shoppers inside selecting what freshly-caught fish to take home and cook with love and care. If you hang on until lunchtime, you'll find the whole space heaving with people: some will be sitting at the counter feasting on an extravagant midday meal of oysters, lobster, shrimps, caviar; others will be satisfying their rumbling stomachs with moules frites, fish and chips, or an exotic octopus salad; there will be queues lines snaking around the whole room like a bed of eels as people order hot food to take-away, wait for a space at the counter to come free, or make the difficult decision of which sushi box to have today.
Today I was one of those people agonizing over which box of sushi to go for. After pacing back and forth numerous times, peering over the counter to admire how neatly and quickly the sushi chefs rolled those rolls, I grabbed a box and went and joined the people hovering by the high tables outside, waving their chopsticks in one hand as they worked through piece after piece after piece of the freshest, simplest, tastiest sushi.
I ate surrounded by business men and women on their lunch-break, by tourists waving selfie sticks in front of their faces, and by people just like me who were luckily enough to spend their morning building up an appetite by strolling around the market.
Does someone want to be my friend and come and eat a lobster with me sitting up at the marble counter next week? We could have a glass of Champagne too? I'm sure we can find a good enough excuse to make it acceptable Wednesday lunchtime behavior.
The Lobster Place, Chelsea Market, 75 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY 10011
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