Side dish suggestions - steamed whole lobsters

This is weird, but the New England part of my family always made lettuce or cucumber sandwiches with lobster. I don't know why. But thin white bread, a little mayo, lettuce or cucumber. Super simple and I can't associate anything else with lobster! Also, my mom makes an maazing butter dipping suace with jalepenos, ginger, and lime.

Be sure can get a pound of butter and make some "Ghee" clarified butter. You might need cheesecloth to drain that or a fine sieve.
It keeps months at room temp and longer in the fridge.

If it was summer I'd suggest corn on the cob for the side..but not now.
Maybe a wild rice and brown rice mix, snow peas, small green beans, polenta, rissoto or the potato salad mentioned up thread.

On my side of the continent we eat dungeness crab instead of lobster. Most often our side dish to a whole crab is ... half a crab !

Thank you everyone for the great suggestions! I love the idea of going some sauteed greens and something creative with corn. Trying to keep it relatively light since we are going to be dipping the lobster in butter and it will be nice to get a little taste of summer in this terrible weather we're having in NYC. Wish I had the space to do the big pot full of sides with the lobster but alas, Brooklyn kitchens have their limit.

gosh dy, wouldn't that be great if we could get all the world's political leaders at a table like that? What a blast they'd have! they'd never forget THAT dinner!!

How casual is your lobster dinner. Our local volunteer fire department has a lobster feed every year in which they steam everything, then cover the tables with newpaper and pour the contents of all the pots, minus water, down the center of the table...lobster, potatoes, corn, onions. lots of napkins, but no utensils are provided. Everyone brings their own wine and share.

That gave me another thought - corn and lobster are such a classic combination, but since it's not corn on the cob season, you could make corn pudding. Works well with frozen corn. Corn fritters too - can be made ahead and reheated/crisped in the oven - I use an old trusty recipe from Pierre Franey (don't hear that name much around here, sadly) but change it up depending on whatever else I'm serving - sometimes leave out the cumin, or add thyme or basil, use the jalapeno or not... http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/10970/corn-and-sweet-pepper-fritters.html

What part of the country/world are you from? What's seasonal? You could make a corn risotto but that may be too involved. Boiled, Buttered potatoes with Old Bay Seasoning and served on spinach sautéed and let the steam lobster drip down with butter and served with lemon wedges.

A personal fave is flavoured steamed rice. Also some green beans go well with it.

Whatever i serve (usually a mustardy potato salad), i suggest something that does not require the diner to do anything to the sides. For us, we are always concentrating on the lobster, butter and lemon, and that's enough to have to deal with. Everything else should be served ready-to-eat as is!

Are you serving drawn butter with the steamed lobsters? You could take a cue from the clambake you mentioned and serve steamed small red potatoes, simply drizzled with butter and a sprinkling of snipped chives and sea salt. Add some homemade coleslaw and I think you'd have a great taste of summer in February. (And I'd serve beer as well as wine - maybe not quite as appealing as in August, but with this meal it would be a good option.)

We love cole slaw with lobster, both the creamy or the vinegar versions.

Mac & Cheese with gouda & bacon or there is this one that looks pretty incredible. http://food52.com/recipes/2770-smoky-mac-n-cheese

Greens like spinach or chard sauted with butter, lemon, and garlic and also maybe some steamed baby red potatoes with butter, garlic, and fresh parsley. Both are very easy and quick to prepare.

Winewise, big, white Burgundy is the classic pairing for lobster, which is usually served with lots of lemony butter. I like Meursaults better than either Chassagne or Puligny Montrachets, some Pouilly Fuisses might be big enough. As for a side dish, I usually think of steamed lobsters as a summer treat, and love to serve corn on the cob with them. But since fresh corn is not an option in most parts of the US in February, Maque Choux http://food52.com/recipes/6300-maque-choux would be a tasty accompaniment.