The Minimalist - ‘Un-Frenching’ Mussels - NYTimes.com
The New York Times runs a recipe for "Southeast Asian Mussel Salad". I'm not convinced: I'm a big fan of mussels, but even so I don't think they look attractive outside of their shell, and so resist recipes that involve them naked, so to speak.
As it happens, here at Opinion Dominion HQ, we ate them on Friday night. One thing that puzzles me a bit is how cheap they now are. In Brisbane, they are sold in 1 kg plastic packets from either South Australia or Victoria. Even at an expensive fish shop, this costs around $11 to $12. The ones we ate on Friday were from the dirt cheap Vietnamese fish shop not far from where we live, and cost $7.00!
I don't know what the mark up would be, but that just seems to me to be extraordinarily cheap for a farmed product that has to be grown in the ocean, fished out of the sea, sorted, packed, and transported in a refrigerated truck for 1,000 or so kilometres to meet their fate in some white wine, garlic and breadcrumbs.
Now that I am on the topic, Sydney rock oysters have been very cheap for a very long time too, even from the expensive fish shops. (Mind you, they often are very small.)
I can only assume that being a shellfish farmer is not an instant way to riches.
1 comment:
I noted in NZ last year that supermarkets have fresh mussels for $4NZ a kilo. There are under constant water spraying which you shut off for self serve purposes.
Unfortunately the units we stayed in had cooking facilities but bans on cooking seafood.
Still, meat prices (including lamb) were astronomical considering the number of sheep about there. I suspect everyone lives on mussels instead.
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