I also doubt that they could have gotten "12 pounds of super jumbo shrimp, 3 dozen blue crabs, 15 pounds of potatoes, eight ears of corn... ...and plenty of other edibles... ...Not to mention a few cases of beer", or the equivalent, in any restaurant for anything close to $200. I assume the $200 figure cited by fm would have bought much less of a feast in a restaurant. Plus there's the fact that the $500 included the stockpot, burner, and "other hardware", which they now own and will presumably get plenty more use out of over the coming years.