Mmm mmm mussels… Saw some Kinkawooka Mussels on sale at my fishmonger and decided to go for it and boy was it worth it. Also had a La Trappe Quadrupel but I’m only just swigging it now after devouring my meal, slurping it down to the last drop of wine+lemon+onion+musseljus.

The mussels were good and sweet and the great thing is they come pre packed and for the most part, cleaned up. Kinkawooka is a company from South Australia that grows their own mussels as well as other shellfish. Mussel season is supposed to be from September till the end of June so I’m guessing I got the best of the last batch. I cleaned up my mussels extra and put them into a small pot with some wine, water, lemon juice and finely diced onion before covering it and bringing it to the boil. In my haste, I left out some bonito which I was gonna use to work some extra flavor in and ideally I would have used a nice shallot instead of the onion and some saffron too. Leaving those things out turned out quite unimportant. The mussels already packed a good amount of flavor and my sauce was beefed up with some parmesan anyway so much so that I didn’t add a speck of salt.

Then there’s the La Trappe. This baby is strong. I was told it packed 10% alcohol and I picked it up when I saw it on the top shelf as I was picking out the cheapest Riesling for my pasta. What intrigued me was this clay bottle, that cost more than double the single bottle, which I got for $5.80. The guy at the counter also told me the clay one tasted better. Still, I was reserving it until I’d tasted this stuff first and its been a while since I had a good beer.

First impressions were its quite rich, syrupy and quite marvellously strong. It was also really foamy and I lost a bit after just one swig as it bubbled furiously. Flavor is kinda sweet and malty, chocalatey. Quite enjoyable and I’m really wondering what the clay does for it, if anything.

I then leave you with the title for this post, derived from a song by Muscles because I’m corny like that.