Pan-Roasted Bouchot Mussels with OS

Mussels were a menu mainstay at Noodle Bar for a year or more of the early going. They were most often billed by themselves: “pan-roasted bouchot mussels.” Sometimes the menu went into more detail: “with fermented bean sauce,” or “w/OS,” which stood for “with Oriental sauce,” my name for this generic pan-Asian seafood sauce I came up with. I enjoy appropriating the out-of-date and borderline-racist term Oriental whenever I get the chance. But I was one of the few Orientals working in