Home › Lifestyle › Food
Spiny lobsters make seasonal appearance
Lisa McKinnon / Star staff The California spiny lobster, in season through March, has interrupted indentations on its tail shell.
STORY TOOLS 
More from FoodWhen you buy a live California spiny lobster from Bob Love, cooking advice is included in the $15-per-pound price.
Step one: Dispatch the lobster as humanely as possible. Love, who sends lobsters home in cardboard boxes stuffed with newspapers dipped in seawater, suggests putting the crustacean — box and all — in the freezer for about 20 minutes before cooking.
If your preferred method is boiling, do so for 12 minutes, then remove the lobster from the water and allow it to rest for three minutes before eating.
Also known as Panulirus interruptus thanks to a series of interrupted indentations on its tail shell, the California spiny lobster is in season from October through March. Love catches his lobsters off Santa Cruz Island, then sells them at the fish market from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturdays behind Andria's Seafood Restaurant in Ventura Harbor Village.
He suggests arriving as soon as the market opens to catch the greatest number of fishermen and offerings. But for those who want to sleep in and eat their lobsters, too, he takes reservations. Call 658-9898.
Also in the market: Ridgeback shrimp, $4 per pound, and sand dabs, $2.50 per pound.
Find the markets:
WEDNESDAYS: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Pacific View mall parking lot facing Main Street, Ventura (529-6266).
THURSDAYS: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Plaza Park at Fifth and C streets, Oxnard (483-7960). 2 to 6:30 p.m., 403 W. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks (529-6266).
FRIDAYS: 7:40 a.m. until everything is sold, Mira Monte Elementary School, 1216 Loma Drive, Ojai (640-4384). 3 to 8 p.m., Simi Valley Town Center, 1555 Simi Town Center Way, Simi Valley (643-6458).
SATURDAYS: 8 a.m. to noon, 2220 Ventura Blvd., Camarillo (482-1507). 8 to 11 a.m. behind Andria's Seafood Restaurant, 1449 Spinnaker Drive, Ventura (644-0169). 8:30 a.m. to noon, Palm and Santa Clara streets, Ventura (529-6266).
SUNDAYS: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., 300 E. Matilija St., Ojai (698-5555). 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Harbor and Channel Islands boulevards (includes a fish market), Oxnard (643-6458).
— Lisa McKinnon
(Requires free registration.)
Article discussions on this site are to support community debates of issues related to our stories and editorials.
Discussions should not stray from the subject of the story or editorial.
We do not allow the following:
We reserve the right to delete threads and/or ban users for these or other reasons we deem necessary.
Opinions are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.