Moules Marinière

Mussels (Mytilus spp.) are a perfect food—cheap, good for you, tasty, versatile, and easy to cook. Why they are not part of the core foodways of the Anglophone tradition is open to speculation. My guess is that they did not compete well with oysters and clams when our culture was defining its tastes. Why? First, because they aren’t appealing raw. Second, they had to be cleaned because of their “beards” and other attached debris. Third, in the past, even the not-so-distant past, oyste