Columbus Foodie

I really, really, REALLY should have trusted my instincts. I’ve known for the past couple of weeks that this week’s Whisk Wednesdays dish was Mussel Soup – and I loathe everything about mussels, especially the texture. So I convinced myself to substitute whole shelled and cleaned clams and hoped for the best. Yesterday, I realized that a big part of the cooking process was extracting the juice from the mussels for flavor. Clams from a bag don’t usually come with said juices, so someone made a suggestion to substitute clam or some other kind of stock. Big, big, BIG mistake.

It looks pretty, but there are few things I’ve ever tasted that were quite as foul as this. It reminded me of swallowing a big gulp of polluted salt water from the ocean at the Jersey shore. More briny than it had any right to be, the salt (in the stock, I guess) made it so salty that I spit it out almost immediately. And the texture of the clams?? :::shudder::: Let’s just say that the first thing that came to mind is boogers (not that I would know, mind you…).

Let’s consider this one a very expensive failed experiment. The whole pot went down the garbage disposal. Luckily, I’ve scoped ahead a couple of weeks and the next two don’t have any unpleasant surprises. Let’s hope my (or rather Paul’s) technique does them justice.