Moules Marinières

Moules marinières are mussels steamed open in white wine with shallots, garlic and parsley. It's France's classic bistro pot, and the entire dish — sauce, cutlery and all — is built around the empty shells the mussels leave behind.

What it actually is

Mussels, scrubbed and debearded, go into a hot pot with softened shallots, garlic and a splash of white wine, covered and steamed for just a few minutes until every shell pops open. The liquid they release joins the wine to become the broth, finished with butter and a handful of chopped parsley off the heat.

Any mussel that stays shut after cooking is discarded, not forced open — a closed shell means it was dead before it went in the pot, and that's the one real rule of the dish.

How it's served

• In the pot it cooked in, or ladled into a deep bowl, broth and all.
• With a spare shell, used as pincers to pick the meat from the rest — the traditional way to eat it, no fork required.
• With frites and crusty bread, the bread specifically for the broth, which is often better than the mussels themselves.

Writing it on a menu

• Flag molluscs; it's the entire dish, not a garnish.
• Note sulphites from the wine.
• Say whether it's served with fries (moules-frites), which is the standard bistro pairing and changes the price and portion expectation.
• Mention if you finish it with a splash of cream; a marinière with cream is a genuinely different, richer dish and worth naming as such.