I never liked mussels until I visited Canada.
In 2006, I spent a week in Prince Edward Island with my parents, brother and (then) girlfriend and my husband. It was a beautiful island, with lots of happy memories. One of these memories was a dinner theater that we went to with everyone, something that Brian and I had done before but the others had not. My Dad was a little skeptical but in the end enjoyed the show more than anyone else!
The dinner part was served family-style, at long planked tables. I immediately noticed that the first course had these steel buckets on the tables and they certainly got my attention. Mussels! I wasn't fond, after a stinky cooking experience when I lived in New Hampshire six years prior. (I had a lot of "skeptical" cooking experiences at our house in New Hampshire, this was not a good culinary time for Crafty Mama, or for that matter, Brian. We learned from a lot of mistakes in this era!) I was six months pregnant at the time of our Prince Edward Island adventure, and I adore fish. Mussels and other shellfish were on the short list of fish that is considered "safe" for pregnant women to eat, so I gave them a shot. Was I ever glad that I did! They were steamed in a wine broth and were so good, I may have eaten almost a whole bucket by myself!
Last year I got a repeat chance to enjoy P.E.I. mussels with Hubby, dining at a little seaside joint in Saint John, New Brunswick. We split a bucket of these delightful, albeit ugly, mollusks and I was warm and happy over the experience.
So, when Brian put mussels on the menu for tonight, I was elated! I even said at dinner last night, "tomorrow is mussels...I'm so excited. :)" Brian did not disappoint, turning up mussels in a white wine, garlic, shallot and tomato broth, served atop jasmine rice and asparagus with bacon on the side. The jasmine rice was perfect for sopping up the broth, and the dinner was absolutely to die for. What a fond way to reminisce with a food that I fell in love with in Canada.
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