Fresh sardines are all the rage right now: sustainable, delicious, cheap and full of the omega-3 fatty acids everyone's talking about. But finding fresh sardines can be difficult. They spoil rapidly and are managed in such a way that the season could be open one day and closed the next.

This can be frustrating, and I'd sought sardines for a month in vain until the government finally reopened the season July 1. Now I have my sardines -- at last!

What to do with these little fish? You could stuff and grill them, or you could fry them in olive oil and marinate them in a vinegary sauce to make an Italian scapece, which is like an escabeche. The sharp, spicy sauce preserves the sardines for several days in the fridge -- just the thing for a snack on a hot day.

Photo copyright 2009 Holly A. Heyser

Looking for a sustainable, tasty and good-for-you fish? You could do a whole lot worse than choose mackerel. A recent British article extolls the virtues of this little fish, which is very high in omega-3 fatty acids, richly flavorful and is excellent smoked or grilled.

Look for Pacific (a/k/a chub) or Atlantic mackerel in the market; King Mackerel and Spanish Mackerel are different fish. If you are at a sushi restaurant, it's called saba.

The key to eating mackerel is getting it perfectly fresh. If the fish has bruised skin, if the eyes are sunken in and overly red (some redness is OK), and if there is any "off" smell at all, don't buy it. A fresh mackerel should look like it just came out of the water.

Oh, and did I mention that mackerel is cheap? Yep. I've seen it for as low at $3 a pound, but even at $6 a pound, it's worth the price.

Photo copyright 2009 Robin Macdougall/Getty Images

Something odd is happening in New England: There are more lobsters being caught than there is demand for -- yet the lobster population is not being over-exploited. What does this mean for you? Cheap lobsters with a clean conscience.

An Associated Press story is reporting that lobstermen are selling the crustaceans out of their trucks at a cut rate, so if you live in New England, hit them up. Trevor Corson, author of the book "The Secret Lives of Lobsters," recently wrote that this is because the big packing houses in Canada are failing because their finances were wrapped up in Icelandic banks, banks that have crashed.

I've noticed lobster prices dropping here in California, and now I know why. I'm heading down to my fish market ASAP. Time for a good lobster boil. Or maybe an Italian-style lobster salad...

Photo copyright 2009 Hank Shaw

I found some absolutely perfect head-on shrimp at a market the other day and felt compelled to buy them. What's so special about head-on shrimp? There is no better assurance that they are fresh. Shrimp, like any seafood, rots from the head, so you can see clearly if your would-be purchase is in good shape (here's a thorough guide to choosing fish you might find useful).

These were wild shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico, and in such good shape I decided to cook them minimally: Tossed in olive oil, sprinkled with salt and grilled on a hot barbecue.

You really want to do this with both the head and shell on the shrimp, because this both protects the meat from drying out and imparts it with more flavor than if you'd cooked them with the shells off. Yes, you will need to shell them at the table, but make dinner a rustic affair and everyone will enjoy it.

These shrimp were briny and sweet all by themselves, but I made a saffron vinaigrette to go with them as a sort of dipping sauce. A wonderful combination.

Photo copyright 2009 Hank Shaw