Eat Cetera: Let's Shad, Giant Bake Sale, Belgian Restaurant Week

<strong>Shad Dinner:</strong> Fishing for shad is an annual spring tradition on rivers along the Atlantic seaboard, where the androgynous herring swim upstream to spawn. Peter Hoffman, the chef/owner of <a href="http://www.savoynyc.com/">Savoy</a>, wrote an interesting <a href="http://www.ediblemanhattan.com/20090302/net_loss/">article in Edible Manhattan</a> about fishing for shad, in which he explains that "each spring, customers call Savoy to ask when shad will be on the menu, perhaps because these days few restaurants serve it and we have a reputation for local and seasonal cooking. But it goes deeper than that. People crave shad because they need to connect to the past, to a different moment in New York life, and to the cycle of the season."<p></p>Next Tuesday, March 29th, you can reconnect at <a href="http://www.savoynyc.com/">Savoy</a>, the SoHo restaurant with the wood-burning fireplace. (The building it's located in occupies two floors of a Federal-style townhouse that dates back to the 1830s.) Hoffman and Chis Letts, a long-time shad fisherman and educator with the Hudson River Foundation, will be cooking the shad in the traditional manner, on oak planks in the fireplace. Sauteed roe, pickled fillets and shad roe bottarga will also be part of the affair. <p></p><em>70 Prince Street, 212-219-8570.</em>