The exact order in which you eat the parts of a lobster is matter of taste or, perhaps, of local custom. And it's hard, rather messy work, which is why most restaurants provide you with a bib, an item of clothing normally only worn by people so young that they think nothing of letting most of their food dribble onto their shirts. One tradition in lobster-rich coastal towns is to throw outdoor lobster boils. There, instead of bothering to give people plates, the hosts simply cover the picnic table with old newspapers to catch the debris.

So, no one claims that the eating of a lobster is a pretty sight. Proceeding with suave elegance at the dinner table when an intact lobster is on your plate is probably out of the question. But you can achieve the devil-may-care gusto of the true lobster-lover. To do this, you can perform steps 1 through 4 in whatever order you like. But do not omit steps 5 through 7. If you do, you will stand out as a dude instead of a cowboy, a molehill instead of a mountain.

1. Break off the tail by bending the lobster backward until it separates. Next, snap off the flippers at the end of the tail. Insert a finger or fork through the small hole where the flippers were, and push the meat out of the shell. If you see a black vein that runs the length of the tail meat, discard it. This is the lobster's digestive tract, and although it isn't harmful, it may not taste good.
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2. Tear off the claws. At a restaurant, you will probably have been given a nutcracker to crack them open with. At more casual events, you might use pliers, a hammer, a rock, or even (among real experts) your fist. Wield the cracking tool gently though. The idea is to remove the claw meat almost whole from the shell, not to crush it. Also, don't forget to extract the meat from the small side pincer as well as the large one.
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3. Twist off each of the eight walking legs, and suck on them to get at the meat. Sometimes it helps to chew on them a bit, especially at the joints. Incidentally, this can also be done with the flippers you broke off the tail.
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4. Pull the back shell off of the body and carefully discard the stomach sac that you will find roughly behind the lobster's eyes. It may contain bits of hard shell and digestive juices that have an unpleasant flavor.
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5. The green substance in the body cavity is the tomalley, basically the lobster's liver. It is a delicacy, so you should eat it. You might also find another delicacy here, if you happen to have a female: the red roe, or coral, of the lobster. In most lobster-gathering areas, though, it's illegal to remove female lobsters from the waters. This ensures the survival of the population.
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6. Crack the body of the lobster open sideways and extract whatever meat you can. Look especially in the bulging joints where the walking legs were attached. Take your time with this step, which is usually the last stage in lobster eating. It's good to be thorough. The custardy looking white substance is just cooked lobster blood, and you can eat it if you want to. Don't fret about the white feathery parts. Those are the gills, and no one eats them.
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