Frances Belding., age 10, of Savanah, Georgia, for her question:

What kind of a fish is a scallop?

The scallop in the seafood salad looks very different from the live scallop in his native haunts. There, along the shallow beaches of the Atlantic Oceans he lives as a dainty, fan .shaped shellfish. Two fluted shells, held together by a strong, barrel shaped muscle cover his soft insides.

This meaty muscle is the only part of the scallop to :reach our dining table. It looks nothing like the living scallop   but neither does a hamburger look like a steer.