"You're going to cook clams on a grill, you want a big fire."

Before I cook clams, I scrub them with a stiff brush to remove any sand.

Frederick Law Olmsted coaxed other city parks into artistic wilderness, but Inwood Hill is the real thing, with glacial potholes etched out in the last Ice Age and rock shelters where the Lenape cooked their oysters and clams.

He visited small, ordinary restaurants, learning to cook clams with fried parsley in Galicia, fish with cider in Asturias and a pig's head stew in Galicia.

Seafood also shines in the hot antipasto, a medley of lightly cooked and barely breaded mussels, shrimp and clams surrounding a centerpiece of melt-in-the-mouth spiedino alla Romana.

Simmer fresh shrimp in it or cook clams or mussels in it.

Cook the mussels and clams for two minutes, then add half of the white wine to each pan and cover again with the lids.