Mussels
Mussels are plentiful, cheap and delicious. Mussels are best in the winter months. (Our French neighbours make no such seasonal distinction.) Many prefer the tiny Dutch or French mussels, some the huge Spanish ones (often eaten raw by the natives), but my favourite is the plump, orange-fleshed, English mussel.
The bore of mussels is cleaning them. For vast quantities, people would spin them in a washing machine, but however you do it, you must observe the following rules:
Wash thoroughly under cold running water.
Scrape each one free of barnacles and seaweed, until they sparkle like black pearls.
Rip off the fibrous beard which protrudes between the shells.
Push each mussel sideways - if it won't budge it is not full of sand, so go ahead and use it. If it does, discard it.
Do not use any cracked or open mussels. If some mussels are open, pump them for a second or two between forefinger and thumb, if they close again they are still OK.
Rinse again under cold water.