Things in packages reign supreme in festive times, and no package makes a more complete statement than a whole lobster. Wrapped by its own blazing red shell, it looks and tastes like celebration. Stores and restaurants report that New Year's and Mother's Day lead in lobster sales.

Other reasons argue for lobster at this time of year. Late fall and early winter is the season for the sweetest lobsters, says Jasper White, chef-owner of Summer Shack restaurants in New England and author of "Lobster At Home" (Scribner, 1998). "It's about peak time for lobster. They shed their shells in spring so by this time they're very, very, full."

Lobster comes from the East Coast so there's no dodging the guilt. It's not eco-friendly to put wings on lobsters and transport them some 3,000 miles to the opposite coast. For feast days like New Year's, however, an occasional exotic import feels allowable. Your wallet will feel considerably different too -- as in lighter. Still, 'tis the spending season.

So, with the social, seasonal and sustainable calendar all set and guilt expiated, we set out to secure the best way to cook a lobster: boil, steam or -- microwave.

Microwave, you say? Hear me out. On a recent trip to Boston, Chronicle Food staffers heard Roger Berkowitz, third-generation owner of Legal Sea Foods, the monolith fish seller and restaurant chain, say that the best way to cook lobster is by microwave.

We rolled our eyes. Berkowitz is not a chef, so what does he know? Still, he's the head of one of the largest seafood companies in the country and, on further thinking, he made sense. Microwaving means lobster effectively steams in its own container (the shell) and in its own juices.

We had to try it.

We boiled, steamed and microwaved three same-sized lobsters, all from the same source. When we tasted them, it was unanimous: microwaved was best. The flavor, more complex and intense, edged out the lobster cooked by the other two methods.

The microwaved lobster also stayed hot much longer due to the fact that heating lobster from the inside out means it continues to cook in its own juices.

White, who by his own reckoning has "cooked and tasted more lobster than anyone on the planet," grudgingly admits microwaving works. But, as he rightly points out, because lobster has to be microwaved one at a time, "Who's going to eat a lobster by himself?" When you boil or steam lobster, you can cook as many as will fit in the pot, and the results will be excellent. White prefers steaming, which is also the preferred Chinese method for cooking any crustacean. There is no water to leach flavor out of the meat, and no huge quantities of water to bring to a boil. White says New Englanders boil lobsters only when they can use sea water.

We found wildly diverging instructions for steaming and boiling, ranging from 5 to 10 minutes for the first pound, with some sources claiming different times for steaming and boiling. White uses the same amount of time for both methods.

Another way of cooking lobster, which didn't belong in any category, was to poach it in butter, the way chef Thomas Keller does at the French Laundry in Yountville. That's poaching in about six pounds of melted butter, with the claws separated and cooked longer. Prepared this way, the lobster was wowingly good to some tasters, but resulted in a different flavor altogether. Go for it if you have those six pounds of butter sitting around and if you normally cook in Keller's four-star stratosphere.

Once "how" was answered, we turned to "where." Did it matter if the lobster was bought locally or ordered direct from the East Coast?

The results were surprising. In a blind tasting, the Food staff preferred the lobster from a local Chinese supermarket (99 Ranch). A close second was the lobster from Antonelli's, a fishmonger inside Cal-Mart in San Francisco. Third was the lobster ordered from Bayley's Lobster Pound, a purveyor listed on the Maine Lobster Promotion Council's Web site. Taste aside, the direct import can cost three times the price of those imported by wholesalers and distributed in Bay Area markets (see story below).

Besides judging the lobsters against each other, the Food staff freely offered comments. One was that the lobsters -- all of them -- were just plain disappointing. "None of them had the snap and the sweetness," said a taster, not like the lobster we ate at Jasper White's Summer Shack in Boston.

No, they didn't. How could something that has been jet-lagged, traveled dry and held captive?

Still, as White puts it, lobster for us on the West Coast is "like Dungeness crab here" in the East. And that's what we look for at the holidays: a treat.

How to cook lobster

If you're going to cook something that's a treat, it's best to go for pure flavor, says Jasper White. So, cook lobster simply. The classic New England method is steaming. Boiling works, too, and then there is the upstart (and lonely) method: microwaving. Guidelines for boiling and steaming run from 5 to 10 minutes for the first pound. There is also some controversy over whether steaming takes more or less time. Here's what worked for us:

To boil: Bring salted water (about 1 gallon per lobster) to boil. Add lobster and cook for 10 minutes for the first pound, plus 2 minutes for every additional 1/4 pound up to 3 pounds. At more than 3 pounds, the scale for adding minutes decreases.

To steam: Bring 1 to 2 inches of water to a rolling boil. Place a rack above the water, and place lobster on the rack. Cook 10 minutes for the first pound, plus 2 minutes for every additional 1/4 pound, up to 3 pounds.

To microwave: Place lobster in a heavy duty, microwave-safe plastic bag with 1 tablespoon water. Seal the bag. Microwave 6 minutes for the first pound, plus 1 minute for every additional 1/4 pound.

Other lobster notes:

-- Lobster can legally be caught year-round. In the dead of winter, lobsters hibernate and are more difficult to catch, so prices are higher. Prices are lower in the summer.

-- Keep lobsters alive in the refrigerator or in a cooler with ice packs. Do not place them in water (they will die) unless you have circulating, refrigerated, salt water. They can stay alive this way from 30 minutes to 24 hours, depending on many factors.

-- Lobsters are held in tanks in three places: On the East Coast, at a local wholesaler's, and in a local retail store. They need some time in tanks to purge their digestive systems. Lobsters stop eating once they are tanked and can begin to lose weight. Whenever possible, try to assess the state of the tanks in each place.

-- Just before cooking, you can place the lobsters in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes to immobilize and sedate them.

How to pick perfect lobster for New Year feasting

We calculated that our exotic, ice-packed, individually boxed and flown 11/2-pound hard shells cost us more than $30 apiece, with the bulk of the cost due to shipping. Compare that to the $8.99 per pound ($13 for 11/2 pounder), plus your own gas and mileage, for the ethnic market lobster. Antonelli's in Cal-Mart charges $14.99 per pound (about $23 for 11/2 pounds). Its lobster is held on ice, not in a tank; however, the lobster is supplied by a local wholesaler that carries them in tanks (we'll tell you who it is later).

Our results jived with the experts' advice: Buy locally from a reputable dealer, make sure the tanks and premises look clean and well cared-for and smell fresh. Also, assess the volume. The higher the turnover of the seafood, the more likely it is very fresh. As White says, look for a busy place, clean tanks and lively disposition (lobster as well as sales crew).

Finally, as is our advice always when purchasing fresh seafood, ask questions: Who is the wholesaler? When did the lobsters come in? How are they stored? How do I know it's fresh?

We had worried that the 99 Ranch lobster would be unsatisfactory because we were told the lobster had been in the store's tanks for about six days (the market buys them fresh once a week), and we didn't know how long it had been held in tanks by the wholesaler, H & N Foods International in San Francisco. However, H & N is the largest seafood wholesaler in the city, so were reasonably assured of fresh inventory.

The Antonelli's lobster came from New England Lobster Co. in South San Francisco (which, by the way, also sells direct to the public at $8.99 a pound), a place with an impeccable tank system. It is also the largest dealer of lobsters, handling about 40,000 pounds a week. In general, the company keeps lobsters in its tanks (with pumped-in and cooled sea water) for no more than two days. Greg Pfotenhauer, general manager, says the quality of this year's crop is somewhat dicey because hurricanes in the East churned up warm water. As a result, some lobsters molted -- shedded their hard shells -- which they normally do in the spring. In addition, the European and West Coast markets vie for lobster at this time, so prices are high.

The good news, White says, is that lobsters that are shipped are the best because only the healthiest live through the grueling journey. In any case, all the critters we bought were fightin' and swingin' and had hard shells -- important characteristics of a good lobster.

Antonelli's (in Cal-Mart), 3585 California St., San Francisco; (415) 751- 3516.

Bayley's Lobster Pound, www.mainelobsterpromo.com

New England Lobster Co., 170 Mitchell Ave., South San Francisco; (650) 873-9000.

99 Ranch, 250 Skyline Blvd., Daly City; (650) 992-8899. Other locations: Cupertino, Milpitas, San Jose, Fremont and Richmond.

About live lobster

Here's the scoop on those screams supposedly emitted by live crustaceans as they cook: They don't scream because they don't have vocal cords. The high- pitched sound that is sometimes heard is caused by steam escaping from the shell.

Experts say lobsters and crabs do not feel pain as humans do, because they have tiny and primitive nervous systems. To sedate and immobilize live crustaceans, put them in the freezer just before cooking (see "How to cook lobster" on this page).