moules-frites — Belgium

Moules-frites pairs mussels cooked marinière-style — steamed in white wine with onion, celery and herbs — with a side of crisp fries. The mussels open in their own steam over the aromatics, and the resulting broth is often mopped up with bread. It is reported as emblematic of Belgian, Northern French and Dutch cooking, and is common on seafront restaurant menus, where cooks offer it in several sauces beyond the plain marinière base, including a tomato-based Provençale style, a curry sauce, a creamy poulette sauce, or a tortue sauce built on curry, cream, surimi, peppers and onions. Mussels are scrubbed and debearded, then steamed in a covered pot with white wine, chopped onion, celery and butter until the shells open. The fries are cooked separately, typically in two stages of frying so the outside turns crisp while the inside stays soft, and are served in a paper cone or on the side of the mussel pot. What varies from one table to the next is mostly the sauce base for the mussels and the exact cut and thickness of the fries, while the pairing of shellfish steamed in a pot with fries on the side stays constant across the dish's Belgian, Northern French and Dutch versions.