Shellfish

This streamlined version of a favorite Malaysian street food noodle dish, char kway teow, substitutes Spanish chorizo for the Chinese sausage sometimes used. The smoked paprika that flavors the chorizo may be far from traditional, but it adds another layer of depth to this seductive stir-fry of rice noodles with shrimp, egg, and jicama. There's just enough chile paste for a mild buzz of heat, but not so much that your mouth is on fire. If the jicama seems like a weird Mexican-Malaysian fusion idea, then you probably don't know that jicama is used in Asia, where it's known as Chinese turnip or potato. Its sweet crunch is reminiscent of fresh water chestnuts. Don't expect a supersaucy dish, but rest assured there's enough sauce to coat everything.

On New Year's Eve 1996, we decided we wanted a warmer place to celebrate, so we jumped on a train to New Orleans, took a paddleboat down the Mississippi, and ate dinner while watching the fireworks. The next day, there was the Sugar Bowl game and the Court of Two Sisters on Royal Street, in the French Quarter, where we went for mimosas and brunch. This routine became a tradition for a few years—but now it doesn't beat toasting in the year with our girls, so we brought the flavors home. This recipe holds a particularly funny memory for us. One year we had a bowl of some of these saucy, spicy shrimp at a restaurant on the pier, just before jumping on the paddleboat. Pat couldn't keep the spoon away from his mouth, and he ended up spilling a tremendous amount of that dark roux down the front of his white sweater. So there he was, sipping champagne and watching the fireworks with a huge stain! He didn't mind a bit.

Crab may be my favorite food of all time—except maybe for scallops or octopus#151;and I like it any way I can get it, including in this totally kicky ceviche dish. I know this combination of foods sounds totally off the wall, but I love to play with food, and this play knocks it out of the park. Trust me! (And if you don't want to trust me, trust the diners at The Surf Lodge, where this dish is a top seller and the one people always ask for.)

"Pumpkin is for more than just pie. I like it in ravioli, soup, and this curry dish!"

Shrimp are a great go-to for lowfat protein. Opt for those farmed in the United States: Foreign farms use potentially harmful antibiotics and chemicals.

Make or buy a savory cornbread to use in this luxurious stuffing; the kind you use will determine how much broth you'll need to moisten it.

A high-in-folate parsnip looks like a funky carrot, but this root veggie is sweeter and slightly nutty.

Editor's note: Use this recipe to make Black Rice with Squid .

• Fish stock can be made with a mixture of any white fish and crustaceans, and crabs are a very good addition.

Soybeans are the only complete vegetable protein, delivering all nine of the amino acids that help build fat-burning muscle.

Editor's note: Use this recipe to make Alex Brown and Evan George's Savory Rolls . The next best thing to foraging your own wild mushrooms and huffing their death-matter musk from a Hobbitshire-like hillside in NorCal while your guide trips on psilocybin shrooms is (obviously) slurping crispy hot shrooms right out of the cast-iron skillet they were cooked in. Admittedly, it's a distant second. But it still feels nasty. Thanks to the whole steak joint steeze revival, it’s now totally acceptable to eat out of cast-iron. Here we do a mushroom mélange of various shapes, sizes, textures, and prices. Omit and add as you like, especially if you actually get to forage for wild ones.

Serve this dish with toasted bread to soak up the juices. To debeard the mussels, grab the beard with a kitchen towel for a better grip.

At Peels in New York City, chefs Preston and Ginger Madson tweak this Low Country favorite with two secret ingredients: a little Budweiser and a lot of tasso, a Cajun-spiced ham, which you'll find at specialty foods stores and cajungrocer.com. You can sub in andouille sausage if tasso is not available.

A saganaki is a traditional two-handled skillet in which Greeks serve aromatic one-pot dishes, typically topped with cheese. This recipe is a play on the classic shrimp and feta saganaki, to which I have added millet for a deliciously satisfying meal, finished with a dash of ouzo to infuse the shrimp with its distinctive anise flavor. A Dutch oven doubles beautifully as a serving vessel, or transfer the cooked millet to a shallow serving bowl and top the ouzo-infused shrimp.

Watermelon is a heart-health heavyweight. It has about twice as much ticker-protecting lycopene as tomatoes do.

This soup is equally delicious served hot or chilled.

Serve this no-frills feast with cold beer and bowls of melted butter and steaming broth for dipping. The broth cleans the clams, particularly steamers, of any stubborn grains of sand. To serve 4, halve the recipe and divide ingredients equally between two large (8-10 quart) pots.

Crab cakes are so popular in Baltimore, they're even sold at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Use lettuce instead of a bun, and serve with a squeeze of lemon.