Calamari

When T. asked me how I would like to spend my last day on earth, I told him by playing Hookie from work making marinara sauce together making love while it was cooking, drinking red wine, eating bread and watching all the movies we have talked about watching together. -- from Anne Marie Fahey's diary, Feb. 22, 1995Anne Marie Fahey's last day turned out much differently from the dreamy scenario she anticipated in her diary.In fact, the only part that came to pass was that she and "T" indeed were together when her last day ended.

In just one month, Ouzo Bay has made a swaggering debut in Harbor East. Every decision concerning the atmosphere, menu and service feels exactly right. The food is prepared with extraordinary care and presented with casual grace. Dinner there is fun. You're meant to enjoy the food and yourself equally. We did, without exception. The fish and seafood program is spectacular. There are luxury items like Dover sole, wild-caught and flown in fresh from the Netherlands, and langoustines, a spindly lobster from the Norwegian Sea that you will fall in love with at first bite.

  When we first heard about Birroteca, it was described as an artisanal pizza joint. Birroteca does have pizzas - good, wood-fired pizzas with chewy crusts and fancy ingredients, but there's more to it than that. Some of your friends and neighbors have already started staking claims to Birroteca, so don't wait too long. For one thing, there's an appetizer of grilled calamari that you need to have before the next fortnight passes. There are also promising pizzas, terrific salads and hearty autumn pastas.

The seafood risotto at Pasta Blitz is almost too pretty to eat. The mound of creamy rice in the middle is topped with chopped tomatoes, parsley, calamari rings and slivers of garlic. It's served on an oval plate, bordered by mussels in their shiny black shells, clams in their gray ones, and several plump pink shrimp, positioned with military precision. Poor:

On June 20, 2006, FRANCES MASINO; beloved wife of the late Angelo Masino; devoted mother of Angela Calamari and Patrick and Angelo Masino; loving grandmother of Christopher, Laura, Michael, Angelo Joseph, Nicole and Anthony. Interment to be held in New York. A Memorial Service will be held at a later date at Church of the Resurrection in Ellicott City. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to: The Tara Howard Foundation c/o Church of the Resurrection.

2006 Alice White Chardonnay From: South Eastern Australia Price: $7 Serve with: Crab dip, fried calamari, Buffalo wings This is not an outstanding chardonnay. It is an outstanding $7 wine. It delivers a clean, pure and simple version of this varietal, with none of the heavy or overripe flavors that can creep into Australian chardonnay. It's on the light side, with the typical chardonnay flavors of lemon, apple, nuts and spice. Restaurants should check out this widely available brand.

The odds against it happening must be at least a zillion to one. But Centennial's baseball team did it.The Eagles hit for a home run "cycle" in a 12-run fourth inning at Hammond High Monday.Brian Kujawa crushed a grand slam. Brian Loden banged a three-run dinger. Chris Calamari ripped a two-run homer. And David Hudson hit a solo shot."It was pretty impressive," said Calamari, a power hitter who has four homers and four triples. "We call Hammond the 'Homerdome' because of its short fences, and we figured we'd hit a couple.

The 41st Annual Greek Food & Cultural Festival starts Friday. This is the one at the Greek Cathedral of the Annunciation in Midtown-Belvedere, when everyone sits on the cathedral's steps in the sunshine and stuffs themselves silly. Under the big tent on Preston Street, there's stuff like gyros, souvlaki and fried calamari. But you have to go inside the cathedral and down into the basement for the baked lamb shank, spanakopita, pastitio, roast chicken and stuffed grape leaves. New this year: a Saturday night party in the tent, with a live band.

Seafood fried diavolo? Scanning the chef's specials at the shiny new Silver Moon Diner on Pulaski Highway in Middle River, I got a chuckle out of that one. Of course, the menu writer meant fra diavolo, not that the calamari, clams, shrimp and scallops in this pasta dish would be fried. I was less amused by our waitress' double-take when we ordered spanakopita. She clearly had never heard the word before and asked to see it on the menu so she could figure out how to spell it. Like many diners, the Silver Moon has a distinctly Greek sensibility, and a section of the sprawling menu is devoted to "Hellenic treasures" such as gyros, moussaka and yes, spanakopita.

Joe Flacco celebrated his 27th birthday at Chazz: A Bronx Original on Monday night with his wife, Dana. The Flaccos were joined by the Pittas, Ravens tight end Dennis and his wife, Mataya. At Chazz , The group ordered a number of appetizers including fried calamari, tomato bruschetta, the signature veal meatball and, from the mozzarella bar, the burrata and parma prosciutto. According to a representative from the Harbor East restaurant. The table also enjoyed two coal-fired pizzas, the Burrata and the Funghi, and for dessert, the group shared the tiramisu and cinnamon-spiked, vanilla-iced bread pudding.