Looks delicious, doesn’t it?
It wasn’t. It was gross.
When I saw mussels on sale at Harris Teeter last week, I jumped at the chance to recreate one of the best dishes I’ve ever eaten, at 39 Rue de Jean in Charleston, S.C.
Their version had Pernod, fennel sliced and cooked like pasta, tomatoes and lots of garlic. I couldn’t stop eating it. I thought, surely if mine is half as good, it will still be worth it.
But I forgot the cardinal rule of cooking with shellfish: they’re best when they’re extremely fresh.
The “sale” at Harris Teeter should’ve been the first warning sign — they were trying to get rid of old inventory. Once I got the mussels home and was prepping them for dinner, I noticed the date on the bag said they’d been harvested nearly 2 weeks earlier (second warning sign). But the onions, garlic and tomatoes were already sauteeing on the stovetop, so I forged ahead.
The mussels were fishy tasting (that’s the worst!) and not nearly as brown or soft as Rue de Jean’s.
Oh well. I ate the leftover linguine (sans mussels) for lunch at work. At least *that* tasted good.
Nicole M. Markle 