It happens to all of us. Arriving at the store with our shopping list in hand, our heads are filled with visions of the lavish meal we are about to create. Quickly these dreams come to a screeching halt as we discover our grocer is out of top sirloin, or sea cucumber, or whatever other ingredient is essential to our feast.

After experiencing a wonderful soft-shell crab prepared at Harry’s Johnny’s in Dupont, we headed to Whole Foods with thoughts of fruit mingling with fresh seafood, but of course as luck would have it, there wasn’t a soft-shell to be found. A few phone calls later, it became apparent that the precious softee could not be located anywhere in the District.

Normally Eating In tries to recreate dishes that we have had out and about in our area’s fine restaurants. But with deadlines looming it became apparent that even though we’d never seen it on a local menu, the same curried cream sauce and mango salsa we’d dreamed up for a soft-shell crab would go quite nicely with the grilled whole fish requested by a reader. Of course, if any of you have seen a similar presentation for grilled whole fish we would love to hear about it.

It’s a mystery why we always seem to resort to chicken breasts, and fish filets, when whole chickens and fish, cooked on the bone, are so much more succulent and full of flavor. If you don’t have a grill, a roasting pan just larger than your fish in an oven set at 375° will produce similar results. Those who opt for the oven won’t have to worry about the sometimes disastrous whole fish flip that can easily end in a crumbled catastrophe. Finally if you’re not sure what to do after you’ve plated your beast of a meal, check out this blog. The demonstrated technique, when perfected, will have you serving guests the juiciest, bone free fish they have ever tasted.