If the sight of clams, oysters or mussels makes you feel squeemish, you should look away now.

I have shown you a number of unusual foods during the time I've been doing this blog. So maybe you are somewhat used to examining items here that you might not normally choose to eat.  It's only a picture right? You're not actually in the room with me full of cooking smells and I won't be expecting you to try it shortly.

I don't know how you feel about shellfish. Some people find an oyster, clam or mussel to be a little too organic to even look at, much less to eat. But, I've been enjoying the many types found here. I think in one of my early posts, I might have mentioned gathering crayfish and fresh-water clams while on a date with Jeanne way back in about 1971. Those clams were admittedly less than delicious and as tough as shoe leather. I'm guessing though that we probably overcooked them, just to make sure they were done. 

Today's post is about a popular local species, the green-lipped mussel or Perna canaliculus. In Maori, it's called kuku or kutai. They are farm-grown not far from us, just over on the Coromandel Peninsula (Pacific Ocean side) and are always available. They usually cost $4.79 per kilo of live weight, but fairly often go on sale at Pak n Save for $2.99/k. 

We adults consider them a treat so I buy a few now and then. Here are some that I just brought home. 

It's certainly easy to see why their name is 'green-lipped.'  

 In this close-up, you can see a bit of it's 'beard.' This is what anchors the mussel to a rock in the wilds or to a rope at the farm. It's inedible and I usually remove them before steaming. This time though, I'm leaving them in place just to show you what they look like. 

This mussel is interesting also because it has another bi-valve shell of some sort attached to it. 

I get a pot of water boiling under the steamer and in they go.  

They only take about 5 minutes of cooking. By then, they'll be fully open.  

They are ready and look, even the hitch-hiker shell is open. 

Here they are poured out on a platter.  

 The beard will pull out of the flesh of the mussel  easily. 

The green-lipped mussel has one adductor muscle and you can see it here still attached to the shell. You can also see the hole in the meat of the mussel where it was attached.

Here is a little closer look at the mussel and it's beard.

 And here is a really close look. This mussel also has a parasitic pea-crab inside it. Finding crabs inside mussels is quite common. The crabs may spend their entire lives in the mussel. They sneak in, sit on the gills and steal the food that adheres there as the mussel filters water through it's shell.

Cleaned of its beard, and free of crabs, this tasty bit is ready to eat. 

They're very good right out of the shell like this, but we sometimes saute a few sliced garlic cloves in butter and then toss in the lightly steamed mussels for another thirty seconds. Even better. 

Jeanne also sometimes makes a batter and deep-fries them. Those are almost addicting.We use raw mussels for that of course. I've become quite adept at slipping my knife into just the right spot on the shell to cut the adductor muscle. And they are a requirement as a last step in my seafood chowder. 

I've also read that these mussels have anti-inflammatory properties and can help relieve pain in arthritis sufferers. 

Here is a short video about this amazing creature. 

https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/videos/366-mussels-are-filter-feeders