If you thought smoked shellfish only came processed and from a can, sisters Sylvia Levine and Evelyn Ignatow are ready to prove you wrong. The owners of Hyde Park Gourmet Food & Wine have brought in Stonington smoked mussels, scallops and other products from Maine, where the seafood is smoked over smoldering cherry and hickory wood and never sees the inside of a can.

Stonington owner Richard Penfolds is an Englishman who learned the art of smoking seafood in Scotland. The small sea scallops are harvested nearby, off the Maine coast, as are the young, cultured mussels. Both are sweet and succulent, with a whisper of flavorful smoke. Fresh and tender, they certainly don't taste like the tinny processed kind.

In addition to the smoked Stonington scallops ($8.99 per 6 ounces) and smoked mussels ($7.50 per 8 ounces), Hyde Park Gourmet offers smoked mussels swimming in dijon mustard and mild salsa ($7.50 per 8 ounces). The shop also sells pristine fillets of Stonington smoked bluefish ($16.99 per pound), arctic char ($19.99 per pound) and cold-smoked salmon ($7.99 per 4 ounces).

Hyde Park Gourmet is at 2707 Erie Ave., Hyde Park Square; 533-4329.

Chuck Martin