Our Japanese grocers around here are a little bit further afield, but we have an excellent sushi bar around the corner, so my quick solution would be to just get sushi for lunch and slip the chef a few bucks for a little container of tobiko on the side.

That would probably work in Arizona too.

Chinese are good for fresh fish, but for flying fish roe you need Japanese. The Valley's always had a substantial Japanese population -- the Ishikawas go back forever in Mesa, and I think the Matsumotos have been there nearly as long -- and with everything getting so populous and sophisticated out there, I wouldn't be surprised if there were retail establishments selling Japanese-style fish & related substances.

(On one level, I wouldn't be surprised. On another level, I'll never get used to it as long as I live.)

Anyway, what you really can't get in the Valley that's available right now in my neighborhood is dead-fresh shad and shad roe. I'm still sort of regretting not going for the shad. Monkfish I can get any week in the year.

Failing that, I was afraid I might have to mug a sushi chef. Probably not a good idea. Those guys carry knives! And they know how to use them! And while the idea of a funeral with hundreds of little tiny coffins, each with a small slab of vinegared rice and a gobbet of something disgusting but presented in a highly aesthetic manner, has a certain perverse appeal... I think I'll pass.

Had fresh snapper a while ago, however, and served it with potatoes and Frankfurt green sauce, which was far more difficult to compound. I'd gotten fresh borage from my girlfriend and gathered woodsorrel wild in Santa Cruz, then had to hit four different markets to get the other herbs. (Chives, watercress, dill, another type of cress and parsley from my garden.) But the sauce turned out wonderful, and there was enough to freeze the herbs for two more dinners.

MKK