If you are visiting the Tampa area of Florida and experience a craving for seafood, you will not be disappointed at the dining choices that are available. Whether you are looking for something simpler like fish and chips or a fish sandwich or something more extraordinary such as sushi or octopus, Tampa offers it.

If you are near South Dale Mabry Highway, try Shells Restaurant. Their clam chowder is not greedy on the clams and it has plenty of bacon and potatoes in it, too. Appetizers include choices from mussels to crab cakes, calamari to oysters and conch fritters.

Shells offers a number of pasta and seafood combinations such as shrimp or baby lobster tails with linguine, each with a special sauce. Other seafood served with pasta includes sea scallops, mussels, and more.

For something unique, try a Fish Taco or a Seafood Po' Boy. The entree list includes
King and Snow Crab, Lobster, catfish, crab cakes, and many other seafood choices. If there are any landlubbers in your party, the Shells menu also offers chicken and steaks.

For another reasonably priced seafood meal, you may enjoy Skippers Smokehouse on Skipper Road. As with most other seafood restaurants, you will find the standard and traditional seafood offerings, but you will be able to find a few different and fun foods on the menu.

If you have never tried Gator Tail or Gator Chili, this is one place you will be able to find it. As long as you are trying new things, there is a Sesame Seaweed Salad on the menu that qualifies for "new and different." An unusual sandwich on the menu is the Blackened Grouper Reuben.

If you don't recognize some things on the menu such as Ahi Carpaccio or Louisiana Mudbugs, just ask your server. Entrees are served with hush puppies and two sides and many fish and seafood items are presented.

It is not found in Tampa proper, but if you would like a Greek touch to seafood and you will not mind traveling about 24 miles, try Santorini Greek Grill in Tarpon Springs. Talk about new and different foods! You will surely find some of those at Santorinis.

On the appetizer menu you can choose Taramosalata which is salmon roe and called "poor man's caviar" on the menu. If that wouldn't be your choice for an appetizer you may enjoy the oysters with Feta or Sagnaki (scallops and shrimp with cream sauce and Feta cheese) or Spanakopita (Spinach Pie). Those are just a handful of the Greek specialties on the starter list.

Some other Greek offerings served at Santorinis include:

Traditional Moussaka (eggplant layered with meat and cheese)
Dolmades (Ground meat and rice in grape leaves with lemon sauce)
Chicken Feta (with Feta and white wine sauce and served with pasta)
Calamari (Fried squid)
Broiled Octopus (As the name suggests!)

You will find the usual shrimp, scallops, mussels, etc. in the seafood section of the menu. For something different, try the Mediterranean Snapper or Porgy or the Seafood Paella. Seafood in the paella includes clams, scallops, shrimp, and mussels. They are served with a wine and Feta sauce and with pasta.

If you don't want seafood for dinner, a number of lamb, chicken, ribs, and beef items are on the list of options. As with any Greek restaurant, you will find things like gyros and souvlaki here, too. Don't forget your Baklava for dessert!

Cooks often get into a rut with certain foods. If you are tired of plain broiled salmon or salmon cakes, give one of these salmon recipes a try.

To prepare Salmon Fillets Stuffed with Walnuts, begin by making sure a 1-pound salmon fillet is skinned and has its bones removed. Heat 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil in a skillet (medium heat) and soften 1/4 cup minced onions in it.

After the onions are soft (it will take 4 or 5 minutes, don't brown them) add a clove of garlic that you have minced, 4 cups of chopped fresh spinach, salt, and pepper to taste. Cook until the spinach leaves start to wilt and remove from heat. This step will take about 4 minutes.

In the meantime, cook 1 cup of brown rice. After it has finished cooking, add it to the spinach and then also add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. Mix well.

Put your salmon on a parchment lined cookie sheet or baking pan. Put the spinach mixture on top of the salmon and then add 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese that has been shredded. Spread 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts over the top and roll the fillet up. Tie with string or use toothpicks to hold the shape.

Bake at 375 degrees until the salmon is done. This will be about 20 minutes, but make sure it is cooked through. Let it rest for the juices to redistribute for about 10 minutes before you cut it for serving.

If you would like to try a new and different Salmon Loaf, try Saucy Salmon Loaf. This is great because the sauce is passed with the loaf and each guest or family member can use as much as desired.

Make the yogurt sauce first. Simply mix 1 cup of plain yogurt with 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard and 1 1/2 tablespoons of fresh dill. Add 1 cup of frozen peas that you have thawed and add a sprinkling of pepper (optional). Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

For the salmon loaf preparation, spray a loaf pan or 8 x 8 inch square pan with non-stick cooking spray. Combine the following ingredients and put it into the pan you have prepared:

2 cans salmon (each 15 ounces) that have been drained
(Be sure to remove the bones and the skin!)
1 cup raw oatmeal
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup shredded carrots (you can buy these already shredded now)
1/2 cup sliced scallions (or substitute diced onions)
3 egg whites (or the equivalent with an egg substitute)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Pepper to taste

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour. The top should be light brown. Allow it to rest for 10 minutes before serving. When you are ready to serve, pass the chilled yogurt sauce along with the salmon loaf.

Anything that you generally serve as a side dish to salmon or fish will work well with this meal. Some kind of potato, baked for instance, will be a good choice. Your favorite rice or pasta side dish would be a good accompaniment as well.

There are many sushi recipes and this is a basic method for beginners. Don't forget to have all of your equipment on hand (such as the bamboo rolling mat) as well as the ingredients you will need.

Step #1: Rinse 2 1/2 cups of Japanese short grain rice under running water until the water is running clear. Put the rice into a saucepan and add 2 1/2 cups of cold water. Bring it to a boil but then cover and turn the heat very low. Simmer on that very low heat for 15 minutes. Do not lift the lid during this time!

Step #2: After the rice cooks for the original 15 minutes, turn off the burner and allow it to sit still for 10 minutes, still not lifting the lid.

Step #3: Mix 4 tablespoons of rice vinegar (no substitutions!) with 3 tablespoons superfine sugar and 2 teaspoons salt. When the sugar is dissolved, pour it over the rice that you have put into a bowl after its 10 minute rest. Mix it gently until the rice is coated. Cool this rice and vinegar mixture at room temperature. (Do not use a metal spoon because it will react badly with the vinegar and transfer a metal "taste" to your rice).

Step #4: Put a sheet of nori (seaweed) onto the bamboo mat and cover it with rice. Don't use a lot, a thin layer is better (about 2 to 3 tablespoons) and leave a 1/2 inch margin on the edges. For California roll, put your sticks of imitation crab meat, cucumbers, and avocados in the center. Roll with the bamboo mat slowly, tucking in as you move along, until you have a tightly rolled sushi log.

Step #5: Roll the log in sesame seeds, dark or light variety.

Now that is simplified because I can't put the technique into sufficient words. I suggest finding a website that will provide pictures. Whether or not you find such a resource, the perfect rolling of sushi is going to take practice. You will be realizing certain things as you practice (i.e. wetting your hands will make working with the rice much easier and wetting the knife to cut the sushi rolls provides easier cutting) and you will realize that the first few time when it may not turn out exactly right, you can still eat it! It just may not be in a "roll" shape those first few attempts! Nothing is wasted.

Serve your sushi with pickled ginger (called gari) and wasabi. Wasabi is a paste sold in a tube and is Japanese horseradish. Word of warning if you have never tried it . . . it is wicked stuff, and make sure you know what you're getting into before plopping a huge blob of it onto your sushi as I did the first time.

Many people enjoy eating sushi with soy sauce. The gari is eaten between varieties of sushi.

When you have mastered rolling sushi, don't be afraid to experiment with fillings. Non-raw seafood possibilities include cooked and smoked salmon, cooked shrimp, cooked crabmeat (not imitation) or other kinds of cooked fish and seafood.

To make a vegetarian sushi roll, or simply a healthier roll, try tofu as a filling. Thin strips of mushrooms, asparagus, carrots, or other vegetables can be used. (For something you wouldn't normally eat raw such as asparagus, steam it gently first).

My obsession with sushi has caused me to do some research. I have learned a lot of things about my newest food craze and I am ready to try to make some of my own. I went into the buffet yesterday morning when I have always picked up my weekly treat and there was no sushi. Turns out they are now only serving it for dinner. Not so great when it's morning that I'm always in that area!

So I needed to finally follow through and find a way to make it on my own. It is not a bad obsession; it is a very healthy food. I don't do the raw kind, which many people associate with the word sushi. The kind I like, California Roll and other "Americanized" sushi wouldn't even be thought of as sushi in Japan most likely. But nonetheless, it's my obsession and I'm sticking to it.

There are two basic kinds of sushi that I would like to try to make. They are called nigiri-zushi and maki-zushi. The nigiri-zushi is the sushi rice (see below) shaped into an oval and topped with your seafood. You form it with your hands and the seafood can be either raw or cooked. I will not mess with (and suggest no reader do the same without fully knowing everything about it first) raw seafood because of the problems that can arise with it. Sushi restaurants and buffets have that "raw food warning" posted for a good reason and I'd truly hate for my obsession to end up making me sick. So for me it will be cooked seafood with my favorite being imitation crab like California Roll recipes use.

While the nigiri-zushi is formed with the hands and topped with seafood, the maki-zushi is the traditional rolled type of sushi using rice, seaweed sheets called nori, your seafood, and some vegetables cut into thin stick shapes. You will be using a "sushi mat" for making the maki-zushi. (They are made of bamboo and many are quite inexpensive).

One good thing to remember if you don't eat seafood for whatever reason is that there are many varieties of sushi that will not need to use seafood at all. Some even use thin strips of tofu, or strips of an omelet! Look around for some recipes. That is the step at which I am now and I am more amazed as time goes on with the number of possible combinations I can try! There is also a vegetarian variety that uses only strips of vegetables (cucumber, avocado, carrots, etc.)

If you come across sushi at a restaurant or buffet, don't forget to pick up some pickled ginger and wasabi to go with it. I don't enjoy dipping my sushi rolls into soy sauce, but it seems to be a standard for many sushi-lovers. Some people mix wasabi with the soy sauce, but not this gal! I enjoy the tiniest bit of wasabi put directly into the folds of the sushi roll. If you make you own, you may want to just put a touch of the wasabi directly in the roll with the other ingredients before rolling it up.

I grew up in Colorado, where we didn't have a lot of access to fresh seafood. We had a Red Lobster restaurant and a few other seafood restaurants, but the only seafood indigenous to Colorado was Rainbow Trout and Rocky Mountain Oysters (which, truth be told, are not seafood at all.) Yet I was introduced to good, fresh seafood at a very young age. My father traveled for his business and many times his trips took him to the East Coast, namely Boston. Upon returning from these trips, he frequently brought back live lobsters fresh from the icy Atlantic, and he and my mother would boil them red on our stove top. I grew up loving lobster, and much of the other various seafood my father brought back from his travels: fresh salmon, King Crab, and others.

Something happened along the way, however; I grew up and had a baby. Having a baby didn't change my desire or liking of seafood, but the pregnancy did. When I was about five months pregnant, I traveled with my parents to the seashore of North Carolina. We went out for a big seafood dinner at one of the local specialty restaurants. We were all excited and intrigued by the rustic atmosphere, as well as the large hole in the center of each table, in which guests could drop their crab legs, oyster shells, lobster shells, shrimp tails, or any other debris left by dining on seafood. I ordered a huge platter of crab legs and my parents order lobster.

All was well until the food arrived at our table. I took one look at the meals and something didn't seem right. My parents dug right in and loved it; I tried, but somehow the crab didn't taste as good as it normally did. I asked my parents to try it, to make sure I hadn't received some bad crab, but they said it was perfect. I struggled to eat the meal, but never enjoyed it. For days after that, the smell of the seafood stayed with me, haunting me, and I began to hate the memory. For the rest of my pregnancy, I couldn't eat any seafood; I wasn't terribly surprised because my doctor told me there would probably be food cravings and aversions during the pregnancy. I was sure that once the baby was born, everything would go back to normal.

Sadly, it didn't happen. For years after my son was born, I tried to eat seafood, but it always made me feel as it did in that early, 5th month of pregnancy. I grieved the loss of my love for seafood, and my husband wasn't too thrilled, either.

The story does have a happy ending. Although I don't know if I'll ever have that craving for seafood that I had before having children, the aversion is now gone. I can happily eat lobster, crab, shrimp, or shellfish, without the memory of the aversion coming back. My children haven't had nearly as much seafood as I did as a child, though we live on the sea coast; but I just tell them all they can blame their eldest brother. After all, it all started with him!

It seems that people either adore oysters or are not able to stand even thinking about them. If you fall into the former group, finding new recipes for this seafood delicacy may be difficult at times. Here are some idea starters that you may enjoy.

If you want to make a creamy type of oyster stew, melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. Add 1/2 cup each of diced onions, diced carrots, and diced celery and saute for 5 to 7 minutes. Add a pinch of pepper and the juice (called liquor) that you drain from 1 pint of oysters.

Add one can of condensed cream of mushroom soup and 1/2 cup milk. Add the oysters and simmer until the oysters are fat and the edges are curled.

To make a more time-honored and traditional stew, simmer a pint of oysters with their liquor until the edges of the oysters start to curl up. Add a quart of milk and 4 tablespoons of butter. Sprinkle with enough salt and pepper for your taste and then heat it slowly, but do not let it boil or even simmer.

To deep fry a pint of shucked oysters, begin by draining them. One of the tastiest breadings is to dust them with dry pancake mix to deep fry. The oil should be heated to 350 degrees and then the oysters are deep fried (in either a fryer or deep pan) for about 2 minutes before draining them on paper towels. Serve with your favorite tartar sauce or cocktail sauce. Don't forget the cole slaw, French fries, and hush puppies for an incredible meal!

Many cooks whether pro or amateur assume that homemade stuffing is simply too difficult to make. Give this recipe a try and you may change your mind about that.

Melt 1 stick of butter and saute 2 stalks of celery (diced) and 1 diced onion until soft. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add a pinch of tarragon and 1/2 teaspoon of poultry seasoning. Also add 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice. Add a pint of oysters with their liquor and simmer until the edges curl on the oysters.

Remove the oyster mixture from the heat and stir in 8 slices of bread that you have cut or torn into cubes. If it needs to be moister, try adding water or chicken broth a little at a time. Bake in the oven with whatever main dish you will be serving. Cover with foil to keep moist.

To prepare creamy oysters, heat 2 1/2 cups of milk and add 1/2 cup of minced onion, salt and pepper to taste, 3 or 4 drops of hot sauce, and a dash of basil. (Do not allow it to boil). In the meantime, make a paste by combining 2 tablespoons of flour with a teaspoon of mustard and a small amount of water. Add the paste to the hot milk.

Add a tablespoon of butter and stir until the mixture is thick. Simmer for 15 minutes while stirring often. Remove from the heat and stir in 2 or 3 tablespoons of cream. Add two dozen oysters (no liquor! Straight from the shell is best) and heat them in the sauce. Stir again to make sure it won't stick or burn.

There are many seafood recipes in which imitation crabmeat can be used. It is very versatile and it is even found being offered at fresh salad bars now as a tasty addition to salads. Try substituting imitation crabmeat for tuna or other kinds of seafood in your favorite recipes and you may be pleasantly surprised.

To make a crabmeat quiche for a luncheon, brunch, or everyday dinner, start with partially baking a deep dish pie crust in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Remove it from the oven and cool it.

Mix 4 eggs with 1 cup of heavy cream and season with salt and pepper. You may add a few drops of hot sauce or not add any at all depending on how you want the quiche to turn out. Stir 1 cup of shredded cheese into the egg mixture. This can be any kind of cheese, but Jack works well, or a mixture of Jack and Swiss. Use plain cheddar if you wish. Add some chopped green onion or regular onion and 8 ounces of flaked imitation crabmeat.

Add this mixture to the pie shell and bake for about half an hour at 350 degrees. At this point, allow the quiche to sit in the oven for another 30 minutes *after* turning the heat off.

Another way to use the imitation crabmeat is to make a crab, rice, and shrimp dish. Start with cooking 2 to 3 cups of fresh mushrooms (sliced) in extra virgin olive oil for about 6 minutes or until they are soft. When the mushrooms are finished, mix them with 2 1/2 cups of rice that you have previously cooked (not raw!); 8 ounce can of water chestnuts that have been drained; and 1/2 cup each of diced onion, diced celery, and chopped sweet pepper (red, yellow, green, or a mixture).

Stir in 1 cup of your favorite mayonnaise or salad dressing and 1 cup of tomato juice. Season as you wish with salt, pepper, and paprika. Stir in 12 ounces of peeled and cooked shrimp and 8 ounces of imitation crabmeat that you have flaked. Put mixture into a large greased casserole. Sprinkle a cup of shredded cheddar cheese over top and bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

To prepare a crabmeat and noodle casserole, begin by cooking 4 ounces of egg noodles and then drain them. Flake 6 or 8 ounces of imitation crabmeat.

Mix a 10 ounce package of frozen peas or green beans with 1 cup of sliced fresh mushrooms and 1/2 cup diced onion. Add 1/2 cup chicken broth and 1/2 cup chopped celery. Cover the pan and simmer for 7 minutes or so until the vegetables are soft.

Next stir together 1 1/2 cups milk (try skim, it works fine and brings less fat to the casserole) and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. Add 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard. Combine this with the vegetable mixture and cook it slowly until it is somewhat thickened. Stir in 1/2 cup of shredded Swiss cheese.

Stir in the noodles that you cooked previously and also the flaked crabmeat. Put into a casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. If you want a bread crumb topping, just mix about a cup of fresh soft bread crumbs with melted butter.