Mussels like in restaurants - where to buy?
Last night I made mussels in red wine (bistro jeanty) -- the taste was good, very close to the restaurant's. But the mussels were small and tough (M.Stone) whereas the restaurant's were big, meaty and succulent. Where does one buy the good mussels??
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chefj
Sep 26, 2009 10:54 AM
I think you may have overcooked them. Regardless of size they are inherently tough or dry. Prince Edward Islands are the black ones and tend to be small to medium sized but do get large. Most of the larger ones in this area are green lip mussels I am not sure where they are harvested but they are often call New Zealand . Either are good but I prefer the PEIs. As for where to buy them looks like GW has that covered
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I bought some mussels earlier this week at 99 Ranch - $3.99 a pound - not huge but quite tender and juicy. They come in bags about 2.5 lbs each and they're kept on ice. But any decent fish store should have them also ........ Monterey Fish or Tokyo Fish in the East Bay.
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re: gordon wing
Zeldog
Sep 26, 2009 08:12 PM
The price is good at 99 Ranch, but they pull the tags off the bags of mussels (and the rest of their shellfish), so you can't tell when they were harvested. That's a very bad sign. No decent fishmonger who sells whole bags pulls the tags, because the only reason to do so is to hide the fact that the mussels are not fresh.
As for why your mussels disappointed, it could be because this is not a particularly good time of year for black mussels.
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