People come from miles around to savor the famous lobster rolls from The Lobster Shack in Branford, CT. The quaint shack serves what is considered by some to be the best lobster rolls in New England. We went for lunch recently, but before we were able to order a lobster roll, we saw the Hummel Brother's hot dog with chili and it called our name! So we ordered that instead of a lobster roll along with a cup of the chowder of the day (shrimp and corn chowder) and a dozen grilled clams.
Lobster Shack splits their dogs down the middle before grilling them, allowing for maximum meat crisping and caramelization. The dog is then placed in a buttered and grilled bun and slathered in rich smoky chili. We also added ketchup and mustard. We've never heard of Hummel Bros. Meat Food Products, but we loved both the hot dog and the chili! Overall, the chili dog was an excellent lunchtime experience.
The chowder was piping hot and tasty, with plenty of sweet corn chunks. We didn't notice any actual shrimp pieces in the chowder though, which we found misleading (maybe it's just made with shrimp stock?). The grilled clams were dolloped in drawn butter and we dunked them in hot sauce and cocktail sauce. The clams tasty perfectly simple and fresh and were strangely the ideal accompaniment to the chili dog.
Oh, and we tried a bite of our friend's lobster roll -- it was pretty darn good too!
