Today is National Lobster Day, and since lobsters play a surprisingly important role in Mayhem À la carte, we figured it was time to talk about them properly.
The Creature
Lobsters are strange, ancient-looking things, and stranger than most people realize. Their brain is tiny, smaller than the tip of a pen, which might explain some of their life choices. And despite what cartoons have taught everyone, lobsters cannot scream. They have no lungs or vocal cords, so the infamous sound people associate with cooking them is just steam escaping the shell, not the lobster having opinions about it.
They are also, somehow, creatures with a real crime history. Stealing from someone else's lobster trap is treated as a felony in several places. Lobsters have had organized crime problems longer than our game has.
Why He's In Our Game
Honestly, he's in Mayhem À la carte because he looks fantastic. Once the team designed him, he was too good not to use.
And we use him. Our lobster is a force to be reckoned with. Throw one directly at an enemy, or drop one on the ground and let him find his own targets, claws and all. Depending on the situation, he won't discriminate. Friendly fire is very much on the table. And he is especially dangerous to the shrunken enemies as well as friends.
But We're a Cooking Game
Underneath all of that, Mayhem À la carte is still about food, and lobster has one of the strangest food histories out there. It was not always the luxury item it is today. It used to be so cheap and plentiful that it was considered food for the poor, and prisoners were regularly fed lobster because there was nothing prestigious about it at all. Somewhere along the way, that completely flipped, and now it's one of the more expensive things on a menu. A genuine glow-up, several centuries in the making.
Protect These Magnificent Creatures
Somewhere along the way, the team fell a little bit in love with our lobster. He has personality and presence, and frankly, he deserves better than a cutting board.
So the lobster in Mayhem doesn't get harmed. If you want to prepare him properly, you won't need a knife. You glaze him, carefully, with a brush, following the same basting technique real chefs use. No violence, just a steady hand, the right technique, and deep respect for a magnificent creature.
Happy National Lobster Day. Ours fights back, one way or another.
