P.E.I. sets lobster roll record, snatches title back from New Brunswick

It took 120 pounds of lobster meat, 13 kilograms of dough and about 180 volunteers, but P.E.I. is now the record holder of the world's largest lobster roll.

The exact length: 36.5 metres. That's 120 feet long longerthan the length of a basketball court.

Take that, New Brunswick.

• It's on again: the great P.E.I.-New Brunswick lobster roll war

A friendly rivalry had been brewing between the two provinces since last fall, when P.E.I. claimed stake to the world's longest lobster roll with a 23-metre beauty. Then, in July at the Shediac Lobster Festival, New Brunswick boasted that it set the new record of 32.4 metres.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, I think it takes more than that to build a lobster roll. Melanie Giffin

Not to be outdone, the PEI Fishermen's Association pledged to break the record, and on Sunday they came through,but not without a lot of help.

"They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, I think it takes more than that to build a lobster roll," said Melanie Giffin of the PEI Fishermen's Association.

"With the amount of work that went into it, there was no way we could let it fail."

The bun for the lobster roll was baked in a conveyor oven at the Culinary Institute of Canada from dough donated by the Water Street Bakery and Deli in Summerside.

About 60 fishermen and their wives accompanied by a police escort paraded the massive roll 1.7 kilometres to the PEI International Shellfish Festival at the Charlottetown Event Grounds.

There, about 180 volunteers stuffed it with lobster donated by various plants from around the Island. It was garnished with onions, celery, red pepper and almost 20 litres of mayonnaise.

After it was measuredand declared the longest in the world, about 400 people celebrated by eating it.

The next step, Giffin said, is to lobby Guinness World Records to create a category for longest lobster roll, and officially recognize P.E.I. as the title holder.

• MORE P.E.I. NEWS | Why we're so obsessed with food
• MORE P.E.I. NEWS | P.E.I. brain injury survivors welcome donation