an odd (abstract/spiritual/arcane) note on pressure steamers and lobsters

so, as you might imagine i have to kill a lot of lobsters at work.

Even though i am a pastry chef, when i am not baking i am doing any other work that needs to be done

including cutting live lobsters in half and stuffing them (close personal and fast)

or placing live lobsters in a pressure steamer that cooks them just as fast.
(when you think about it the pressure steamer is nothing more then a symbolic representation of a womb)

this is what the machine looks like

I have always felt bad about killing lobsters, but i value my paycheck and the ability to put food on my table then their lives.
They aren't the sharpest tools in the shed. They are also vicious little buggies
(but heck everyone has to do what they do to survive)

the pressure steamer has two doors much like a submarine hatch you crack shut the door and push a lever to activate it.

I also find it ironic that it is pressurized steam that kills them. The very essence from which they live in causes their demise (back to mother you go, may you swim on in the sea of stars)

I have only ever had one nightmare involving the steamer. It was terrifying and it was almost certainly due to stress from a long night: I am in the kitchen at work and i notice that the steamer door is open. Someone has put a puppy inside, it is curled up and sleeping I try to pull it out of the steamer but the door slams itself shut and the damper activates it.
I can hear the poor creatures terrified and tortured screams squeals and cries from inside and there is nothing i can do.
Some time later the door opened itself again and i saw a closeup of the residual steam pouring/rising from the dead puppies mouth...i snap awake

obviously i was having a bit of a spiritual/moral conflict with killing lobsters.........

a part of me is very glad that i became allergic to lobster in my teens.

thankfully they die extremely fast

and they don't have advanced nervous system.

so to all of the lobsters that have met their demise in my presence

sorry :P

none the less lobster is amazing stuff