Serve the whole roasted fish topped with vegetable sauce.

And when the dinner is more formal, each guest can be served a portion of fish, artfully topped with arugula and tomatoes.

In each case the fish is nicely handled, although I was most taken with the branzino bollito, steamed fish topped with diced olives, arugula and the inevitable river of olive oil.

Tartare of yellowfin tuna presented chunks of seasoned sushi-grade fish, topped with a poached quail's egg.

The seared calamari with chilli, lime and ginger is meltingly tender, the seafood pie (fish and mussels topped with crispy potatoes) is tasty and filling, and the crab pasta is deliciously delicate.

The pastry is crisp and tender; you cut it open, releasing a burst of steam and revealing a fillet of accurately cooked fish topped with mushrooms and wild rice.

Other dishes could include small, salt-roasted sweet fish topped with fresh soybeans and tiny roasted Japanese yams; sashimi, and duck-cooked eggplant and ginger.

Otherwise, a typical fish pie consists of white fish and prawns topped with mashed potato.

Another presented small, salt-roasted sweet fish topped with fresh soybeans.

BEST DISHES Ceviches, tamales, stuffed potatoes, pig's feet in peanut sauce, chicken and potatoes in cream sauce, fried fish topped with seafood.