‘Whereas the ordinary lobster is a very favourite dish with English gourmets, the spiny kind has scarcely any vogue. This is no doubt accounted for by the fact that the former is not only very plentiful, but also of excellent quality, while the latter is comparatively scarce.’ (Auguste Escoffier)
Escoffier had obviously not tasted Sydney’s female rock lobster. There are six different types of lobster that make their way to the Australian market: the South Australian, the West Australian, the Queensland painted, the South Pacific or shovel-nosed, the sand lobster or Balmain bug and the Sydney rock lobster. It is easier to refer to them as rock lobsters rather than crayfish, because in England and America crayfish are freshwater animals like yabbies of which we have many varieties in Australia.
