After reading Eddie's post where he mentions eating sopa de mariscos in months with an "r" in the spelling, I am wondering if there are unsafe times for this specialty? Having experienced a rather serious case of shellfish poisoning (numbness, muscle weakness, etc.)in Costa Rica last year (of course at the time I didn't know what was wrong with me), I am not at all interested in repeating this experience. Still, it hasn't kept me from eating linguini with mariscos at my favorite Italian restaurant here in northern California!

It's just an old (like me) caution that dates back to times when they didn't have freezers or adequate refrigeration: one did not eat shellfish in months that didn't have an 'r' (May, June, July & August). Lots of restaurants didn't serve shellfish during those months. I don't think that's really relevant now, especially in fishing ports. But I did have a bad experience in Lisbon in July, '99 (with Mejillones - about half of them didn't open when cooked, so they were inedible).