It's fairly astounding to me that someone could go through life long enough to be considered an older gentleman and not know what mussels are!

If I overheard that on the buffet line I'd have said something. Overheard while walking past their table and sitting down, maybe. All of us seated at our respective tables and supposedly in our own converstions, definitely not.

Sooz, I understand that temptation!
My "settings" are different from yours, FOAS. In a buffet line.. hmm, maybe, if the atmosphere is very convivial.
Overheard walking past a table, no. Everybody seated, no.

I might have said....rather exuberantly..."Honey!! Did you taste those black mussels? they are just divine! I just love mussels....they taste so very much different than clams!"

Not at all surprising, actually. My mother grew up in Washington state and remembers when all one did with mussels was use them for fish bait. She dug them for fun as a child, then threw them away because nobody actually ate them, even in Seattle/Puget Sound!

They did not become really popular in the US until about the 1980's, and even now aren't as popular as other shellfish.

I spent summers on the Jersey Shore as a child ( no nothing like that TV show!)....we ate lots of shell fish and sea food....but I was told that only "The Italians" ate mussels!....So never ate any when they were all over and free for the taking! Now I pay to eat them!!
Lots of garlic.....bit of white wine and a crusty loaf! Ummm!!

There are many in the U.S. who haven't encountered mussels even on both coasts so I would't have been surprised by the comment. I probably wouldn't have said anything in public.

Linda, the Italians have been eating well for centuries so I'm also not surprised they were eating mussels before other ethnic groups at the Jersey shore. They know good food when they see it!

/tricia

Granted I know them from growing up on the beach, but jkom says they became popular in the 80's, so that gives the general population 30 years to become aquainted. Prince Edward Island produced 41 Million Pounds of them last year (according to the internet), they're cheap and even inland chain restaurants like Macaroni Grill serve them, so I didn't think they were particularly obscure. But if I'm wrong, I'm wrong!

There is a popular big restaurant in Paris, the only thing they serve is mussels. Mussels cooked in many ways.

dcarch

I am often surprised at the foods that seem to be excluded from the purview of friends and acquaintances I expect to be knowledgeable and sophisticated. I think it's easy for people to get into food ruts and not eat outside of their zone of familiarity.

FOAS, I don't think they're particularly rare or unknown either, I can buy them in Big Rapids at Meijer.

However, I think some "older" people (meaning even older than I am) aren't familiar with many of the things we take for granted, and as Eileen mentioned, don't eat outside their own familiar circle of foods.

Annie

There was an Italian Restaurant here in town.....for nearly a year....went belly up due to poor management.
But they had mussels on the menu as an appetizer. One of my friends and I were about the only ones who ordered them...people would look askance....we would say want to taste one....just a short head shake.
I know someone who has never tasted egg plant either....got to make a rollitini and not let on what's in it.

I just want to say that what became popular in one area of the country in the 80's doesn't mean every area experienced it.... and FOAS everyone is not as knowledgable or sophisticated about food as you are. It's not that you are wrong, you just have to look at the big picture. Just as someone needs to get out of their comfort zone where food is concerned, we need to be aware of what others have access to

And, what's available at the grocery store in one area (Grand Rapids, for instance) may not be available in other areas. "Older", Annie????I can't believe you said that!LOLOL

jude

Jude - Me? Knowledgable and sophisticated about food? LOL, hardly, the folks here have me googling regularly for things I've never heard of! Just yesterday it was jujubes, and in a few minutes it'll be fuyu persimmoms. My comment wasn't meant to be anything more than genuine surprise; sorry if it came across food-snobby.

Since the family we hung out with, my Mothers, is Italian, I guess it makes sense that they've always eaten mussels. I'm not a big fan, but they do usually make them hot, and besides not liking things too hot, I'm not a big fan of other bivalves.

Me? Yup, I'd have probably informed them. I don't think of it as correcting, just... informing.

Oh, I didn't think you were being food-snobby at all, myself. It's just sometimes the variety of foods available nowadays is so diverse, it's hard to remember a time when such items as Korean garlic-chile sauce or Mexican habanero peppers or Peruvian ceviche's aji amarillo chiles or Indian naan, weren't everyday foods.

The healthfood/ethnic food marketing of Trader Joe's wouldn't have been a success in the 1950's when I was growing up. Too "weird" and would be a turn-off to most people in those days.

What does FOAS stand for?

Dex215, I think they are abbreviating foodonastump's name. It threw me for a minute too so I scrolled up to see what it might be.

LOL, "Hi!!!"

AKA "Stumpy."

The french love them. Happily, we have some of the best here, grown locally. There's a nearby restaurant on the top of some cliffs where they only do Moules Frites in many ways. Lovely food and lovely views!

Mussels are black?

Dex, it's just an abbreviation of "FoodOnAStump", FOAS.

Jude, if it were Grand Rapids, I wouldn't bat an eye, they have a lot of things we don't have here in Northern Michigan. But Big Rapids? It's a tiny little town of a few less than 10,000 people where I can't buy fresh ginger or tahini and we're a long way from the ocean. You are probably right about location, though.

Older, as in my stepmother's age. (grin) She grew up in Louisiana and when I made pasta with mussels recently she asked me what they were and then refused to even try them. I figured Louisiana is a lot closer to the ocean than Michigan, so I was a bit surprised and I attributed it to her "age" since she's nearly 80 and only likes fast food, LOL. Maybe it was the location she grew up in instead.

Annie

The only time I've had mussels was in the mid-1960s, when I was a "mother's helper" for a French-American family. They had a summer home at Groton Long Point, CT, where the extended family vacationed together. The menfolk would collect mussels from the rocks along the shoreline, and the women would steam them and make a creamy sauce from the broth. Only an hour or two between harvesting and serving. Now, that's fresh!

Sue

I'd love to try some really fresh mussels cooked simply. Unfortunately, I've never lived in an are where they are grown (or, if I have, no one fixed them right), so I've never had really fresh ones. And like most seafood (and especially shellfish) the fresher the better. Whatever mussels I've ever tried have been out of the water for at least a few days, so the taste has been less than inspiring.

I went to an afternoon party in Santa Monica a few years ago that had a lot of twenty-something guests from the entertainment industry (including my friend Paul, who is now video editor for X Factor, which I have not seen), and Paul decided to go down to the seafood market to pick something up. He came back with a huge amount of mussels, but no one at the party had any idea of how to cook them, and so Paul asked me what to do with them. I told him to put them in a large stockpot with some white wine, cover them, and let them steam. I had never cooked mussels, but it seemed like a good idea, and they came out great. I would have made a butter sauce for them, but they got eaten too quickly. I guess Paul had bought them because they were cheap - and he's a bit impulsive. I've mostly had them in paella.

Lars

Annie, maybe your step mother is not Italian....*wink*...
I am a long way from any salt water and I can get live mussels from Prince Edward Island...on ice in mesh bags of about 2 pounds at my Hy-Vee Store.
In fact I will be cooking some this week for a friend's birthday party....sort of a collaborative affair. I am doing Appetizers, bread and dessert and someone else is doing pork loin potatoes and squash and salad.

LindaC, I'm not quite sure what ethnicity my stepmother is. And I know it's not her age, truthfully, a lot of people are very adventurous and I don't think that has to do with age. Ashley wouldn't eat mussels for any reason and she's 23, she's never even tried one and doesn't want to. Dad ate mussels and oysters, and he'd try nearly anything. I think really that stepmom only likes things that she doesn't even have to reheat, it's easier to just have it handed to you in a bag or box and then you don't have to wash a plate either.

I was just teasing Jude, because I know she's older than me, but not by much. For some reason I think of her as my age, although I know she's not.

Now, back to mussels, remember to clean them. i didn't once and they were gritty and sandy and just nasty.

Annie

And rip their little beards off! Heh, that's the fun part. LOL.

Annie, explain..."I was just teasing Jude, because I know she's older than me, but not by much." If you meant what I think you did......

I'm older than your stepmother, dearie.lol

I never ate mussels until a few years ago, 10 or so. DD#2 and I were in Atlanta and there's a little French Restaurant back in one corner of Lenox Square Mall that had fabulous (at least to us) mussels. The frites were crisp, the broth was very tasty and they just kept bringing us wonderful bread. We ate so much we embarassed ourselves, but oh how delicious they were.

jude

Posted by coconut-nj "And rip their little beards off! Heh, that's the fun part. LOL. "

That where mussels have sand.

dcarch

No.....the sand is inside.....
The PEI mussels I get are pretty well un bearded and pre purged.

There are many sources for mussels.I am sure there are some with sand inside.

I have had mussels for many years here in NYC and else where, I have never had sand inside. Sand in the beard, yes.

" ----- which use it to attach themselves to rocks, substrates, or sea beds. In edible mussels the inedible byssus is commonly known as the "beard", and is removed before cooking.---"

The beard, pulled from the rocks, sand on the sea beds will have sand attached.

The beard is very fine and strong, some can be used to make fabric.

dcarch

Jude, I know that you're older than me, my brain knows it rationally because you've told me. But you don't act as old as my stepmother, she reminds everyone how old she is and how she's sick and everyone should do whatever she wants becuse she won't be here that much longer. Although at the rate she's got me running, she'll outlive me..

So, yes, I "know" you're actually older than me, but really, you aren't. Grandma told me that we are only young once, but we can be immature forever. (grin) So you get to be my age and I get to be a juvenile delinquent!

And neither of us will ever be as old as my stepmother.

As for the mussels, the ones I get here I have to remove the "beard", that's where the grit is. It might be inside too, for all I know, but get a mouthful of it and you don't care where it's from, you're just done eating mussels!

Annie

Annie

Age? It's just a bunch of numbers! Annie, the next time she says she won't be here much longer, ask her if she has an appointment!

I only eat mussels out so, hopefully, someone else has taken care of the beards.

jude

Growing up as a child of the Sound, I used to pull mussels from the rocks to use as bait (crush the shell with a small rock and bait). We would go clamming all the time. Steamers were the best, but very labor intensive to harvest. Quohaug were easy and plentiful. In a pinch, we would get a basket of mussels, but the cleaning was a pain.

But I have always loved mussels. These days, I think my order of preference would almost be reversed.

Jo

The beards may be dirty because they are on the outside, and who knows where they have been? But when you are preparing fresh mussels to eat, you do have to deal with the grit that is inside the shells as well. The procedure I use is to soak a meal's worth in a bucket of water to which has added a handful of oatmeal or cornmeal. The mussels are still alive at this point, and you want them to eat the meal, forcing them to ahhhh, excrete the grit before you scrape off the beard and toss them into the cooking pot.

I guess it really depends on who says it, the environment, and your relationship with the person. I like the the exuberant "wow what great mussels" lol and exuberant reminded me of an episode at work where a friend/colleague had a word mishap. One was a guy who was really experienced but not college educated (engineering firm) and he mentioned an exuberant, as opposed to exhorbitant, amount of money. I told him gently in private right away since he was doing a dept budget to present the next day. He was a little embarassed initially but happy I let him know.

First time I heard the term gooey duck... LAST thing I thought of was a *clam*!!!

I was reared in far West Texas and have never seen a mussel, except in pictures. I am sure there are thousands upon thousands of people who have never seen a mussel.

I am a gregarious sort of person, so if I had overheard that conversation, I would have stated something to the effect that I had overheard their conversation and thought they might like to know that their "black clams" were indeed mussels. Most people are happy to be given accurate information so that they are better informed.

Jude, Do you by chance remember the beautiful mussels at the Dekalb Farmers Market? I looked at them and really wanted to buy some but getting them home would have been challenging.

DH was introduced to Le Moules when we were in Belgium; he loves them. Mussels with fries, or moules frites, are an iconic Belgian dish. He would get a big pot of steamed mussels, broth, and a side of frites. He had them several ways while we were there. I haven't been skilled enough to come close to what we had.

You know, Cathy, there was so much to see and I try not to spend too much time looking at things I know I won't buy. Bob won't touch mussels, I love 'em but I know I'm not gonna cook them. Besides, all that bread kept calling my name. We have several restaurants here that have good mussels and Lu and I will often have them when the two of us meet for lunch. She is my partner in crime, as if I needed one.LOL

jude

Walnutcreek, my typical opening line in such a situation is something like, "Not to be eavesdropping, but I am..."

Sharon - Not sure if you were joking or if you get different color mussels? I've seen some that are closer to golden-brown.

Posted by sands99 "----First time I heard the term gooey duck... LAST thing I thought of was a *clam*!!!---"

Also known as geoduck. One of the most expensive seafoods.

Wonderful enjoyed sushi style.

dcarch

l0ove clams not so much mussels

Not that many really answered your question! Yes, I also would inform them in a friendly, chatty manner. Last year, while visiting Seattle, we were introduced to "Penn Cove" mussels, farm grown I believe. They were fabulous. We came back home to San Diego, went shopping at Costco and what do we see? Penn Cove mussels, live of course in a 4-5# bag and so inexpensive, something like $3-$3.50/lb. Gosh, were we excited. We've now bought them many, many times. They appear to be de-bearded, almost all of them, and very clean - only have to rinse them off with water. Steam in water and white wine for about 3 min. till they are open and then serve with melted butter - oh my!!!