Moules Marinières & Muscadet

A rule of thumb I have when looking at a fishmonger's slab is, if the fish look a bit sad and dull and not very fresh, I go for the mussels; at least you know that they're alive and therefore fresh (unless they're dead of course).  In the picture above I am reacting to the fish man's question on how many kilos I want; I never know what to say but am showing him the rough quantity I want using my hands.  I think this equated to 2 kg, so good for 2 people (and at only £6, a cheap treat).

Mussels are widely grown all around the Kingdom's coasts and yet I don't think we eat enough of them.  Perhaps if they weren't such good value we might not take them for granted and could treat them with a little more reverence.  These came from Brancaster in Norfolk.

A drop of cream is always good to add to moules marinières if you have any but it is optional.  On the recent Master Chef competition on television the judge John Torode marked down the contestants who had added cream and said "it's just wrong!"  Well, his French pronunciation is not only "just wrong", it's downright painful to hear.  But, we'll let him off if he allows us to occasionally add cream to "moolz".