What are you eating on New Year’s Eve?

Cooked lobster dinner-to-go a perfect solution!

It’s been said that luck favours the prepared. I’m inclined to agree, particularly after this week when I was offered the opportunity to surprise my husband with a delicious take-home meal on the 30th anniversary of the day we met.

The Pelican Seafood Market & Grill launched this party-perfect offering five years ago and it’s steadily grown in popularity. Last New Year’s Eve they packaged up 250 lobster dinners-to-go for eager Ottawa diners.

As Jim Foster, the Pelican’s affable owner explains, it’s the perfect hassle-free solution. The meal includes a generously-portioned shrimp cocktail, a serving of lobster bisque, a crisp green salad, a whole lobster, expertly steamed and cracked plus a lemon-lavender cheesecake. Instructions for reheating and serving are included.

For our romantic celebratory meal, we served it up with a bit of a family-favourite twist. Instead of enjoying the lobster cold with a squeeze of lemon and dipped in hot garlic butter (both provided), we shelled the lobsters and reheated the meat gently in a frying pan with butter and vinegar. It might sound unusual, but quite honestly it’s one of the most delicious ways ever to eat lobster! I paired our meal with a fabulous crisp white wine – Blomidon Estate’s 2017 Tidal Bay, picked up on a recent trip to Nova Scotia – but champagne would have also been an ideal match.

Jim told me that last New Year’s Eve there was an even split of what he calls ‘oldsters and millennials’ who ordered the take-home lobster dinners. In some cases, friends each ordered and paid for a dinner online in advance, then picked them up to enjoy together as their New Year’s Eve meal.

If lobster’s not your thing, the Pelican also offers a host of other ‘to-go’ options including such delights as seafood platters, hot and cold smoked salmon and oysters – shucked or unshucked.

Our take-home feast was the perfect way to celebrate in style without the fuss or mess of cooking lobster ourselves. Thanks to Jim, Emile and the rest of the Pelican crew for helping make our anniversary so delicious!

Note: this was a gifted experience but opinions, as always, are entirely my own.