la.foodblogging

I love mussels. Love them. Ever since I was coaxed into trying them at the restaurant I bussed tables for in High School. It didn’t hurt that a pretty college waitress was the one doing the coaxing. Those were mussels marinara (yes, with the tomato sauce) and not mussels marinare which I like even better.

My love affair continued when I was in France on a business trip and my host insisted on us going to a full French lunch which included enormously plump mussels on a half shell. I can still taste them ten years later, with their soupy, herby sauce.

On my next trip to Paris, for New Year’s 200, I ate mussels at least once a day — often for lunch. I did have one misstep, however, when employing my I-can’t-speak-French-so-I-point-at-what-looks-good method of communication. I ended up with more of a mussel casserole which was actually a bit of a chore to eat and the mussel meat was overpowered by the cheesy mass around it.

At a pub in the English countryside, my Aunt’s husband taught me the best way to attack a bowl of mussels. First eating the meat from one shell and then using that shell as a pair of tongs to pull out the little bivalves from the rest of the shells. And of course, no one had to teach me to finish the soup with sturdy pieces of crusty bread.

When we are at my wife’s parents for Christmas and the tide is just right we hike out to Mussel Rock and pull off buckets of mussels using screwdrivers. It is a struggle to get back up the hill with our loot. That’s where I learned about BBQ mussels. We were outside cleaning the bounty and one of our friends tossed some mussels on the grill until they popped open, dripped a little butter and lemon inside and the result was a little taste of heaven.

On occasion I make mussels at home. I have bought them at Whole Foods, Santa Monica Seafood and I think the best batch I got was at the Redondo Beach Pier from one of the live tanks.

At local restaurants I almost never find mussels presented as a full entree, unless they are part of a bouillabaisse, paella or added as more of a garnish. It’s not so uncommon to find them as an appetizer and I am often tempted to make a meal out of that.

So tell me friends, where should I go on my mussel hunt? How are they served? Best for a casual lunch? Point me in the right direction, my dollars wont get me to Paris like they used to.

Photo by SpeedM

By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.