There is a tank in the Zatiny dining room with lobsters in it — the first live lobster tank of its kind in Zanzibar. Two live there where you can see them; the rest are in a larger tank behind the kitchen. It is not decoration — it is how we stopped serving lobster that had been dead for a day and a half before it reached the pan.
Why a tank instead of a fridge
Lobster does not keep well. The flesh begins to break down quickly once the animal dies, which is why so much of it is boiled or frozen at sea and why lobster on a hotel menu can be disappointing in a way that no amount of butter fixes. Keeping them alive until they are ordered removes the entire problem. When you order lobster at Zatiny, it is taken from the tank at that point and not before.
It also means we buy what the sea gave up that morning rather than ordering a fixed quantity and hoping it sells. The lobsters come from local fishermen working the reef in front of the shore here.
What is actually in the tank
These are spiny lobsters, genus Panulirus, and they are not the animal most European and American guests picture. A Maine or European lobster has two heavy claws. Spiny lobsters have none at all. Instead they carry two pairs of long antennae — the second pair thick, hard and covered in spines — and two spiny projections over the eyes. Defence is the antennae, the armour, and a tail flick that fires them backwards faster than you would expect.
Five species of Panulirus occur in Tanzanian waters. The ones that turn up here are typically:
- Ornate spiny lobster — Panulirus ornatus. The largest of them, reaching around 50 cm, with pale bands on the legs and a body of blue-green and orange.
- Painted spiny lobster — Panulirus versicolor. Up to about 40 cm but usually under 30, and the most striking to look at: white antennae, and white lines drawn along a dark green shell.
- Scalloped spiny lobster — Panulirus homarus. The commonest across the western Indian Ocean, smaller and browner, and the one most often landed by the artisanal fishery.
If you want to know which one is on your plate, ask — the kitchen knows, and the difference is easy to see before it is cooked.
The rules the fishery works under
Tanzanian fisheries law sets real limits on lobster, and they are worth knowing because they explain why supply here is irregular rather than constant. Females carrying eggs — "berried" females, with the eggs held in an orange mass under the tail — may not be landed at all. There is a minimum landing size of 250 grams. Beach seines, spearguns and scuba gear are restricted as fishing methods.
Enforcement across the region is imperfect, and researchers who have studied the fishery say so plainly. But the rules are the reason a good supplier turns up some mornings with nothing, and that is a better sign than a supplier who always has exactly what you asked for.
Eating it
Lobster is a premium dish, so it sits above the dinner included in half board and is charged as an extra. Tell your butler in the morning if you want it that evening — that gives the kitchen the day to find good ones rather than serving whatever is left in the tank.
The kitchen will cook it however you want it, but the plainest treatment is the honest one: split, grilled over charcoal, garlic butter, lime, and nothing else competing with it.
The tank as a thing to look at
Children work this out before adults do. The two lobsters in the dining-room tank are usually the most-watched things in the restaurant at dinner, and the kitchen has got used to being asked to show people the ones out the back. Ask. Nobody minds.
