This year's Oyster Festival sounds just great. We love the idea that there will be a food contest: actually two food contests. We've seen festival food contests on television from all over the country and always hoped we would have one in connection with our Oyster Festival. We are looking forward to covering the event.

We had a great cold seafood salad while on vacation: plump shrimp, avocado, papaya, celery, lettuce, olives, and tomato as we remember. There is no mention in the contest sponsored by Whole Foods of Jericho and Manhasset as to which seafood to use in your recipe. Actually we would love to offer the pages of this newspaper for your favorite seafood recipe to get people interested in the contest.

Our favorite hot seafood hors d'oeurve is Oysters Rockefeller. We love spinach and it goes wonderfully with the oysters. Years ago we had them when Mark Fox did an opening event at Canterbury Ales where he offered many oyster recipes for people to sample. It was lots of fun as the trays kept coming out of the kitchen! We love raw oyster - truly - but the cooked oyster is great too. They are actually totally different culinary experiences for us.

(We are currently listening to a book on tape and learning about food reviews from Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl, The New York Times restaurant reviewer, on loan from the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Public Library. Driving to work, listening to a book on tape on loan from our local library is just another of the benefits of living here and loving it.)

We are looking forward to seeing you at the Oyster Festival. In fact, Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto said he has attended every Oyster Festival and added, "I see no reason for you all not to come." That goes for us too.

We'll see you at Oyster Festival 2006 on Oct. 14 and 15, at the waterfront and on the streets of the hamlet of Oyster Bay.

- DFK