In New Orleans Restaurants And Homes--With Recipes
The 33 Best Fish And Shellfish

Every year on the thirty-three weekdays of Lent, we present a ranking of the best seafood around town. Some years we rank seafood restaurants. On others, we rank specific dishes. Three years ago, it was the thirty-three best local seafood species for the table.

This year, the subject is all the seafood that we find in our restaurants, seafood markets, and our dinner tables at home. The list is dominated by local seafood--we live in one of the great fisheries of the world, after all. But it also includes favorites from other places. Salmon and scallops. Lobster. Mussels. Halibut. Our chefs prepare spectacular dishes with those fine guests from other waters.

The list is a countdown, beginning with the thirty-third best and working up to Number One. It's a measure of how superb our seafood selection is that even #33 is involved in many excellent local dishes. Please tell this to anyone you speak with who doesn't live here. Two-thirds of America still believes that all our seafood is still coated with BP oil. (Which, of course, it never was to begin with.)