Mussels are best eaten in season. That’s from July to April. You can get mussels more or less all year round, but most restaurants serve them in these months only. Restaurants usually dish up mussels with bread or French fries, along with different sauces. They go down well with a nice glass of white wine or selected beers. In addition to traditionally prepared mussels, every restaurant has its own recipe, for example, mussels which are fried, coated with breadcrumbs or gratiné.

So, what’s the best way of eating mussels? Mussels can be eaten by hand, so straight from the pan. The first empty shell can be used like a fork. That way, you can scoop the next mussel out of its shell. What happens to all the empty shells, you may ask yourself? Well, you can make a chain of shells, by sliding the empty shells into each other. Or just put them in pan lid!

Mussels are best eaten in one of Zeeland’s mussel villages. Yerseke and Bruinisse are both such places. You will see row upon row of mussel boats – or kotters - in the harbour. Mussels can be eaten here on the waterside. ‘Fresh’ is no false promise here: they come straight from the sea, onto your plate. Philippine is also a mussel village, though its harbour has long ago been filled in. Its mussel restaurants serve no less than half a million kilos of mussels a year.

Did you know that Yerseke has its own mussel bier? And that Philippine chooses a special mussel wine every year? Of course, you can try out this wine at every mussel restaurant in Philippine.