Lobster salad is among the lunchtime buffet dishes, along with rice and peas and suckling-pig and others, about which James Bond fantasises while pursuing Scaramanga through a mangrove swamp in Jamaica in The Man with the Golden Gun (1965). Lunch had been promised by Scaramanga following a train ride, which had terminated sooner than expected. If the food had actually been served, the lobster salad may have looked something like this recipe, which is inspired by one – in fact an advertisement for the ‘Bird in Hand’ restaurant – in Jamaica’s Daily Gleaner in May 1964.

Serves two

• Meat, cut into chunks, from 1 or 2 cooked lobsters
• ¼ iceberg lettuce, shredded
• 1 stick of celery, sliced
• 1 tomato, cut into thin wedges
• 1 tsp chopped capers
• Flesh from 1 avocado, cut into chunks
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced

For the dressing

• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp finely-chopped red chilli
• Salt and black pepper

Throw all the salad ingredients into a bowl. Combine the dressing ingredients in another, smaller bowl, adding a pinch each of salt and black pepper. Pour the dressing into the salad bowl and toss the salad. Serve the salad with crusty bread or french fries.