Shellfish

We topped these rolls with a combination of plain tobiko (flying-fish roe) as well as seasoned and wasabi-flavored tobiko and golden whitefish caviar. The specialty tobiko and caviar are available from the mail-order source given below.

Also try the salsa with some corn bread or scrambled eggs for a spicy treat.

This can be served immediately as a warm salad or made ahead and served chilled.

Stitt likes to use rock salt — the kind used for old-fashioned ice cream churners — as a bed for these oysters because it keeps the shells from tipping and sliding around in the pan and on the plates. Rock salt is sold at many supermarkets, but kosher salt is a good substitute. At the restaurant, Stitt makes this recipe with local Apalachicola oysters, though he also likes the flavor of East Coast varieties such as Blue Point, Pemaquid, and Malpeque, so feel free to use your favorite.

A classic of the Balearic Islands, where lobster is found in abundance, this stew (known as caldereta) is intensely flavorful and fun to eat. Live lobster is essential, since the tomalley (liver) is a key ingredient. Serve the stew with plenty of crusty country-style bread.

The early Yankees often cooked local shellfish in milk-based chowders with potatoes. True to their English heritage, the colonists planted kitchen gardens with as many herbs as they could cultivate, which they put into all kinds of dishes, including chowders.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The dinner menu at the Terrace Dining Room in Phoenix includes this elegant selection. Orechiette, which means "little ears," is a small, round pasta that resembles-little ears.

Though Rose Pascale always uses fresh octopus (sold as pulpo in many Latino markets), we found that it's generally sold frozen. You may need to special-order or reserve octopus from your local fish market several days ahead.

Thai food lovers will recognize this soup as the classic tom yaam goong. In its homeland the dish would have far more hot chilies. We've toned down the heat for newcomers to this cuisine, but veterans can add more chilies to make this soup as incendiary as they wish.

This springtime dish would go nicely with sliced red and yellow tomatoes drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette; offer corn muffins, too. End the dinner with wedges of chocolate mousse cake.

Here's a marinade that was inspired by the spicy food served at a favorite Connecticut restaurant of the same name. It's nice for jumbo shrimp, sea scallops and chicken. The recipe makes enough to marinate about 1 1/2 pounds of seafood or poultry. Any marinade coming in contact with raw meat, seafood or poultry must be boiled for one minute before using it for basting.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.