I recently had the worst moules-frites in the world...

In Brussels! We were shocked- had it there many times before (not in
that restaurant), and it was fine. These were horrid, half were dead,
and the ones that opened were not up to much, and hadn't been cleaned.
Bleah. We returned the dish, refused to pay, and left with a discount on
the drinks. Still, not a pleasant experience. I've named them on
tripadvisor for those that read there, should appear in a few days.

(Hope the cross-post is considered appropriate as food outside the UK
often comes up in the UK group.)

David

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"[Do you think the world learned anything from the first
world war?] No. They never learn." -Harry Patch (1898-2009)

Oh dear me yes you did have to crosspost that
Martin will be thrilled to entertain that thread, how about telling us your
experience of public toilets in London ?


"David Horne" a écrit dans le message de groupe de
discussion : ...
In Brussels! We were shocked- had it there many times before (not in
that restaurant), and it was fine. These were horrid, half were dead,
and the ones that opened were not up to much, and hadn't been cleaned.
Bleah. We returned the dish, refused to pay, and left with a discount on
the drinks. Still, not a pleasant experience. I've named them on
tripadvisor for those that read there, should appear in a few days.

(Hope the cross-post is considered appropriate as food outside the UK
often comes up in the UK group.)

David

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"[Do you think the world learned anything from the first
world war?] No. They never learn." -Harry Patch (1898-2009)

Martin wrote:

On Tue, 5 Jun 2012 01:31:25 +0100, (David Horne)
wrote:

In Brussels! We were shocked- had it there many times before (not in
that restaurant), and it was fine. These were horrid, half were dead,
and the ones that opened were not up to much, and hadn't been cleaned.

Dutch mussels are already clean when you buy them. Maybe these are the
ones imported from UK and sold as Belgian of Dutch.

I don't know where they were from, except they were disgusting. It was a
first for me... just glad we didn't pay.

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"[Do you think the world learned anything from the first
world war?] No. They never learn." -Harry Patch (1898-2009)

On Tue, 5 Jun 2012 10:36:00 +0100, (David Horne)
wrote:

I don't know where they were from, except they were disgusting. It was a
first for me... just glad we didn't pay.

It's not "mussel season" yet. Try again in about 6-8 weeks time.
There's an old saying here that mussels are only to be eaten in moths
that have an "R" in them. Ik suspect that this was because in the past
cooled transport was not availlable and summer months have no "R" ;-)

Anyway, it's not the time of year to eat (local) mussels here.


Bye Maurice
--
Hamradio: ON4BAM http://www.on4bam.com/
Travelogues and Amateur radio
http://blog.on4bam.com/blog/

Martin wrote:

On Tue, 5 Jun 2012 10:36:00 +0100, (David Horne)
wrote:

Martin wrote:

On Tue, 5 Jun 2012 01:31:25 +0100, (David Horne)
wrote:

In Brussels! We were shocked- had it there many times before (not in
that restaurant), and it was fine. These were horrid, half were dead,
and the ones that opened were not up to much, and hadn't been cleaned.

Dutch mussels are already clean when you buy them. Maybe these are the
ones imported from UK and sold as Belgian of Dutch.

I don't know where they were from, except they were disgusting. It was a
first for me... just glad we didn't pay.

When you buy mussels from a fish merchant etc. in UK do you have to
clean them?

Whenever I've bought them, yes. It's not that time-consuming, and I'd
expect a place charging 18 euro for them to have done it. They'd mostly
been debearded but there was gunk inside many of them. Not pleasant...

They were bigger than the ones you usually get in the UK FWIW.

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"[Do you think the world learned anything from the first
world war?] No. They never learn." -Harry Patch (1898-2009)

Maurice ON4BAM wrote:

On Tue, 5 Jun 2012 10:36:00 +0100, (David Horne)
wrote:

I don't know where they were from, except they were disgusting. It was a
first for me... just glad we didn't pay.

It's not "mussel season" yet. Try again in about 6-8 weeks time.
There's an old saying here that mussels are only to be eaten in moths
that have an "R" in them. Ik suspect that this was because in the past
cooled transport was not availlable and summer months have no "R" ;-)

Anyway, it's not the time of year to eat (local) mussels here.

That was no excuse to have presented them the way they did though.

David

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"[Do you think the world learned anything from the first
world war?] No. They never learn." -Harry Patch (1898-2009)

On Tue, 5 Jun 2012 12:00:47 +0100, (David Horne)
wrote:


That was no excuse to have presented them the way they did though.

That's right, they shouldn't offer mussels is the quality can't be
guaranteed. But some knowledge in advance might have saved you this
mishap.
I guess it all has to do with competition. If others offer it, they
also have too.
We start eating mussels the first half of August. Never earlier. BTW,
they are sold cleaned and ready to cook in most supermarkets and dish
shops.


Bye Maurice
--
Hamradio: ON4BAM http://www.on4bam.com/
Travelogues and Amateur radio
http://blog.on4bam.com/blog/

On Tue, 05 Jun 2012 14:37:49 +0200, Martin wrote:


Nowadays you can eat them at any time of the year.

Correct, but quality varies throughout the year. The reason that you
can have them year round is that they are imported and not all mussels
are created equally ;-)


Bye Maurice
--
Hamradio: ON4BAM http://www.on4bam.com/
Travelogues and Amateur radio
http://blog.on4bam.com/blog/

Am Tue, 05 Jun 2012 09:49:05 +0000 schrieb Maurice ON4BAM:

On Tue, 5 Jun 2012 10:36:00 +0100, (David Horne)
wrote:

I don't know where they were from, except they were disgusting. It was a
first for me... just glad we didn't pay.

It's not "mussel season" yet. Try again in about 6-8 weeks time.
There's an old saying here that mussels are only to be eaten in moths
that have an "R" in them.

That's how I learned it from my grandfather. I personally would find it to
risky to eat mussels in the warm season, as it can make you seroiusly ill,
if one of them is bad (botulism).

Regards,

Frank

In article , Hucklenbroich01
@aol.com says...

Am Tue, 05 Jun 2012 09:49:05 +0000 schrieb Maurice ON4BAM:

On Tue, 5 Jun 2012 10:36:00 +0100, (David Horne)
wrote:

I don't know where they were from, except they were disgusting. It was a
first for me... just glad we didn't pay.

It's not "mussel season" yet. Try again in about 6-8 weeks time.
There's an old saying here that mussels are only to be eaten in moths
that have an "R" in them.

That's how I learned it from my grandfather. I personally would find it to
risky to eat mussels in the warm season, as it can make you seroiusly ill,
if one of them is bad (botulism).

I suppose it depends on what you call 'warm'.

Shellfish is eaten in tropical countries in temperatures that are never
achieved in a European summer.

--
William Black

When you hear the words 'Our people are our greatest asset' then it's
time to leave.