Mussels

[PossiblyPFB]

Fairly trivial but....

We love Mussels and chips (specifically Moules marienère style) in our house and I find them a great dinner party option as an easy but impressive main dish for a crowd, with skinny chips, salad, and French bread to sop up the sauce.

I always check whether anyone has any dietary requirements or particular dislikes to avoid before hosting. Now I find myself having to ask, and so, what’s your view on molluscs, as some people who ‘are easy’ will say actually, yeah, no mussels thanks when I double check.

It’s become apparent to me that mussels (in general, not mine- which are delicious!) .....are very marmite.

So I’m interested in the MN vote......

Mussels are amazing (YANBU)
Mussels are the worst (YABU)
If they are the worst- WHY??? Help me understand!

Thank you in advance!

I love them. Also love scallops, crab, clams etc etc. But I don't like oysters. It's the texture I think, they just remind me too much of snot.

My 5yo loves mussels. But won't eat blueberries.

Husband will eat them in something like paella but wouldn't eat a big bowlful of them.

I wouldn't serve up mussels at a dinner party unless I knew for sure that the guests liked them. They're too marmite.

evilharpy

I'm the same- although cooked oysters are lovely.

And no I wouldn't serve them as a main item for dinner, unless I knew the guests.

My kids love them too, my DD has loved mussels- and all seafood since a toddler.She still loves a plate of " prawns with their clothes on" - known as "fighting food" in our house- because some work has to be done to extract the sweet flesh.

I'm not a fan of eating rubbery globules and hate garlic even more so it's a no thanks from me.

Mussels are a fantastic carbon sink.

www.musselpower.org/science.html

I have never tried them, but never will as I studied ecology and conservation and so I know what they live off. To be honest they never look particularly appetizing anyway.

I love moules mariniére and frites but I wouldn’t serve it at a dinner party because of this reason. If I was doing maybe a themed seafood night and everybody was coming for that then yes but generally no. I’d also be shot scared if poison everyone inadvertently.

I love them and DD(9) says they’re her favourite food. DH and DS won’t go near though.

I would also class myself as “not picky” but don’t like mussels. It’s also the sheer volume of them.

I am surprised at people saying mussels are the cheap option. At £6.60 per portion with the extras/other ingredients that would make each it about £9 per head per main. With starters and pudding it's be about £15 each before wine/drinks. I think that's fairly generous for a dinner party unless it was a really special occasion.

Other peasant meals like coq au vin or beef shin would be way more economical.

DH loves things like mussels and cockles etc.

I'm generally less keen, I find the texture a bit weird. I'd go for things like prawns, crayfish, squid or scallops over mussels, cockles or clams.

Where the chuff are you shopping to pay that much? Harrods food hall?
My fishmonger does 1kg for £2 give or take. That feeds four with spaghetti as a main or 3 if you're doing something like a big stewpot.

That's the fishmongers on the high street. Nothing too posh. I went in as I read mussels were the best source of protein for the environment and they were £6.50 per kilo. I spoke to the fishmonger and asked why they were so expensive as they're meant to be cheap and he said he thought that was reasonable as you'd pay £15 in a restaurant. I pointed out but you would have to cook it yourself and buy all the other ingredients!!

I wouldn't serve less than a kilo per person. Most of it is shells. and with a bit of baguette and a few chips we'd be hungry on less. Perhaps if it was with spaghetti id do a kilo between 2.

A lot of people just really dislike seafood. Like me! They probably don' t even think of it when they say they are "easy," because it's not a thing they usually eat or even think about. With all seafood (mussels, prawns, crab etc) I would say always ask before assuming it's ok with most people in the way you might assume chicken is.

I think they smell and look amazing but I worry too much about getting food poisoning to ever eat them so I would be really thrown if you served them to me.

Does everyone else who likes them eat them by using the first one as a pincer and then stacking the shells inside each other?
I learned that with my family in Normandy when I was about 7, Dd learned it from me and taught her boyfriend.

No I have seen that but stick to basic fork action.

Am pretty speedy 😃

Mussels are amazing but now full of plastic 😢

I voted they are the worst because what they remind me of. Not that mine looks yellow but I think they look like female genitalia.

I used to love them. I had them one Sunday evening just before a flight... I have never been so sick in my entire life! I have never eaten them since (nor have I eaten at Cafe Rouge where I bought them) and it's been years. It's put me off for life!

We lived in southern Europe for 20 years and the thing I miss most about being back in the UK is the lack of decent seafood.

I can't believe that as as island nation we are so shit at seafood, particularly shellfish. Having said that I did have some of the freshest and most delicious mussels in Cornwall.

My ideal meal would be a massive seafood platter with crab/lobster, prawns, clams and any other shellfish you can think of.

We also used to eat percebes which I don't think you get here at all but if you're not a seafood lover they would really freak you out. They grow on rocks and look a bit like elephants feet. I don't really know what the English translation is although I have seen them translated as barnacles!

I would be wary of serving mussels at a dinner party in the UK because so many people either don't like them or are allergic.

They're full of plastic, really?

Love them, but they made me properly ill once, even though we were by the sea in a ‘nice’ restaurant (UK). Ruined the rest of my holiday, I was ill for days.

@ihavebrillohair - that’s how we eat them too. Learned in Brussels and it’s really impossible to eat them any other way once you know how to do it properly!!

feellikeanalien

Where do you think the seafood you are eating in Southern Europe comes from? You think it has been pulled from mediterranean waters??? That's a joke. That sea was emptied long ago. You won't find many decent clams or lobster in the sea off Southern France.

We have some of the best seafood in Europe here in the UK.
Tonnes of fish and seafood are pulled from cold Atlantic and Scottish waters and flown daily to Madrid, Rome, Paris and Athens.
There is a strong likelihood that that platter of lobster or prawns that you are scoffing in Rome was caught off Aberdeen or Ullapool.

Some of the best seafood and fish in Europe is landed in the UK.

I like mussels but dont think they're impressive at all, they're pretty easy to cook so not really a dinner party type food.