by Nancy Gardiner
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (Sep 29/97) - Eastcoasters are bringing their experience to the North in gastronomic ways.

Rankin Inlet's Northern Stores is selling live lobsters and there's a monthly market for them in the small Nunavut town.

"Most people are very pleased with them. We get different reactions. Some people who've never seen them before think they're a big insect and get squeamish, I guess," says Terry Kent, grocery manager of Northern Stores and a former Newfoundlander.

The average price of a Rankin Inlet-transplanted lobster is about $18.

The brownish live lobsters shift around in tubs in the meat department of Northern store, waiting to be boiled to their reddish-orange suits of armor after people have picked through them.

"Some people are leary about touching them."

"We bring them in once a month from Winnipeg on an NWT Air jet in Styrofoam containers," says Kent.

Forty-eight live lobsters have left Neptune Fisheries in Winnipeg at the end of each month, for the past couple of years now -- destined for Rankin Inlet. The amount being shipped has doubled since they were first brought in, says Kent.

Most people know how to cook the crustaceans -- for about 20 minutes.

Other exotica from Neptune destined for Rankin Inlet palates includes fresh salmon, mussels, fresh pickerel, salt cod, scallops and shrimp.

Kent happily admits his tastebuds also benefit from bringing in the seafood and he likes keeping his customers happy, too.