Comments on: Mussel thoughts

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:57:08 +0000

I have to admit that I like seafood better than freshwater fish too. Although, I’m really not crazy about cleaning fish.

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:54:44 +0000

It depends on what I’m making Rose. Sometimes I just cook them in a large pot with a little olive oil, white wine, salt, garlic and a bay leaf. I bring that mixture to a simmer, then add the mussels and cover the pot until the open. Other times I eat them with pasta by cooking them together with shrimp and clams and the same mixture mentioned above with the addition of some hot pepper. I then remove them from the pan and toss the cooked spaghetti in the sauce that was made by cooking the seafood. Of course, for the best sauce, the shrimp have to be cooked whole.

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:51:47 +0000

I’d never even heard of mussels until I went to France (Brittany) during a semester abroad at college. Actually there were a lot of things I’d never heard of or eaten until that point – my upbringing was mostly meat and potatoes since my dad thinks the only vegetables that should be eaten are corn, baked beans and peas – and the only fish we ever ate was fish sticks. It was an eye-opening experience. I was never that interested in cooking until I went there and discovered all those “new” foods.

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:48:19 +0000

I never really thought of mussels as “poor people” food. But, when it comes down to it, what I was trying to get at was that people have started to cook differently. They no longer want bones in their meat so they have to cut around it, etc. But, some of the best cuts of meat are around the bone. How many nutrients are we missing because we refuse to eat anything that hasn’t been completely cleaned and processed for us?

By: Gil

Gil — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:11:23 +0000

My Father loved to go to the docks and buy all kinds of fish and other seafood. When we kids complained about eating it his stock reply was something like this “this is what you would eat in Naples”! Nothing was better than the food he ate in Naples. I love most saltwater seafood. I guess mostly because of my Father and that a lot of fresh water fish tastes like mud!

By: rose heck

rose heck — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:09:36 +0000

How do you cook your musseels.

By: Judith in Umbria

Judith in Umbria — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:23:58 +0000

When I was a kid in Maine, no one ate mussels. WE didn’t even know they were edible, although they sort of resemble clams and oysters, which we ate with glee.
Then I moved far away, became a poor single mom starting a career and I bought mussels from a man who drove down from Maine every Friday because it was the only fresh seafood I could afford. Mainers also did not eat crabs, so he sold those too. I love mussels, and yet I only discovered them because I couldn’t afford lobster.
It’s hard to fail with mussels! (OTH, at my Coop they can clean them for you in a machine, but you must eat them the very same day without fail.)

By: Martha

Martha — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:03:33 +0000

In America, in the south, you probably find fattier cuts of meat in local ‘neighborhood’ types of markets or it goes into making hot dogs, processed meat or pet foods. While eating the food of country folk is big here in Italy I don’t think it has caught on as much in the US. My father and at least one of his sisters would not eat mussels. Their Italian parents had convinced them that mussels were what poor people ate.