a rivulet
barry burton
the songs will write the words
Working at Fitbit. Mobile developer. Readable Obj-C and Ruby aficionado. Coffee freak. Slow food and natural wine dilettante. Snow enthusiast. Sometime cyclist.
“ I don’t eat mussels in restaurants unless I know the chef personally, or have seen, with my own eyes, how they store and hold their mussels for service. I love mussels. But in my experience, most cooks are less than scrupulous in their handling of them. More often than not, mussels are allowed to wallow in their own foul-smelling piss in the bottom of a reach-in. Some restaurants, I’m sure, have special containers, with convenient slotted bins, which allow the mussels to drain while being held—and maybe, just maybe, the cooks at these places pick carefully through every order, mussel by mussel, making sure that every one is healthy and alive before throwing them into a pot. I haven’t worked in too many places like that. Mussels are too easy. Line cooks consider mussels a gift; they take two minutes to cook, a few seconds dump in a bowl, and ba-da-bing, one more customer taken care of—now they can concentrate on slicing the damn duck breast. I have had, at a very good Paris brasserie, the misfortune to eat a single bad mussel, one treacherous little guy hidden among an otherwise impeccable group. It slammed me shut like a book, sent me crawling to the bathroom shitting like a mink, clutching my stomach and projectile vomiting. I prayed that night. For many hours. And, as you might assume, I’m the worst kind of atheist. Fortunately, the French have liberal policies on doctor’s house calls and affordable health care. But I do not care to repeat that experience. No thank you on the mussels. If I’m hungry for mussels, I’ll pick the good-looking ones out of your order.
Words to live by—Anthony Bourdain, in his book Kitchen confidential: Adventures In The Culinary Underbelly, on why he doesn’t eat mussels when out at a restaurant.
Words to live by—Anthony Bourdain, in his book Kitchen confidential: Adventures In The Culinary Underbelly, on why he doesn’t eat mussels when out at a restaurant.
