New York Times | Times-Picayune | Bangor Daily News
New Orleans Times-Picayune arts writer Doug MacCash stopped by Zabar’s during a recent New York vacation and checked out the Lobster Salad ingredients: wild freshwater crayfish, mayonnaise, celery, salt and sugar. “Wild freshwater crayfish? Really? At $16.95 per pound?” he wrote in a Dining blog post. “Zabar’s manager was not available when I phoned for comment.”
The Bangor (Maine) Daily News followed up with a “No Fake Lobsters Allowed” editorial, which reported that the Maine Lobster Council “quickly got on the case” and called Zabar’s president Saul Zabar and told him that federal regulations prohibit deliberate misbranding of food products. The New York Times reports today that Zabar’s has decided to change the name of its “lobster salad” to “seafare salad.” Saul Zabar says:
We really didn’t think that we were doing anything that was not completely up and up, but there was an element that might be confusing, and with all this stuff going on, I decided now’s the time to clarify.
MacCash tells the Times’ James Barron that he laughed when he heard about the name change. “It tickled me to have traveled from New Orleans to New York in order to eat crawfish.” He writes today that “my fateful bagel bite has made me am a minor media sensation. (CNN just e-mailed. Can “60 Minutes” be far behind?)”
We have made it easy to comment on posts, however we require civility and encourage full names to that end (first initial, last name is OK). Please read our guidelines here before commenting.