Lobster on a roll

MOVE aside, wagyu burgers. Lobster rolls are the gourmet fast food du jour. Essentially a butter-griddled hot dog bun stuffed with cold mayonnaise-coated lobster meat chunks, the luxe snack drew three hour-long queues when lobster-only Duxton eatery Pince and Pints opened its doors a fortnight ago. At least eight other restaurants now sell the rolls here, up from two some years ago.

But they weren't always so popular, recalls Nicholas Lin of seven-month-old Platypus Lobster Shack. When he first debuted his lobster rolls as a supplementary dinner-only option at his box-lunch outlet, Platypus Gourmet2Go, it was not particularly popular. "Only a handful of our customers actually knew what a lobster roll was," says Mr Lin, who now sells up to 400 lobster rolls weekly.

But why is the American seafood shack favourite - said to be born of 19th-century New England hostesses who thought the consumption of an entire lobster too messy for their elegant dinner parties - suddenly catching on here?