Scallops in the White House

Dear Mr. President: We read in The New York Times last week about your first state dinner, and we loved the kitchen tour that Mrs. Obama gave to culinary students and her comments about eating locally grown foods. And we read that the first dinner included Nantucket scallops, a favorite of yours, Mrs. Obama said.

Wild bay scallops are a good favorite, and increasingly rare these days, harvested mainly from the clean waters around the two Islands. But with all due respect Mr. President, with your own history of visiting the Vineyard, we were disappointed to see that you chose Nantucket scallops over scallops from the Vineyard. Is it possible that your bipartisan agenda includes bivalves? If so, we must congratulate you but also tell you what you are missing.

The bay scallop season is almost over; it closes April first and reopens again in October. Perhaps then you will have the chance, at an autumn state dinner, to find out for yourself that Vineyard bay scallops are the sweetest.