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Welcome to Jurassic Park!
oh no that's a different film π
Okay?
[Leila laughing] okay!
Here we go!
I'm Tom and welcome to Conwy Mussels!
You can only get Conwy mussels in Conwy you know,
They come from the river Conwy,
and the whole process happens here in Conwy
so that's why we got "Protected Designation of Origin"
I'm the fourth generation in my family
so it goes back to my great granddad really
The actual mussels were discovered a long time ago
when they weren't initially caught for eating,
they used to have a lot of pearls inside them
so they were fished for the pearls
White pearls.
And they were sold to jewelers.
The meat inside was just used for chicken feed.
What started as just a cheap meal,
has become quite an expensive luxury now.
I can feel something there,
I think so,
let's see what we've got:
Conwy Mussels!
We're gunna take these back to our building on the quay
give them a wash,
and we're gonna cook 'em
No you won't beat Conwy Mussels,
we keep telling people!
[Tom laughing ππ]
So bit of a white wine that's gone in there first.
Onions.
Leeks.
Gotta have leeks if you cooking them in Wales.
And there's no right or wrong,
you can do you dish how you like,
you can put in what you like
Celery is going in,
dash of olive oil,
bit of garlic.
Mussels in.
Now the mistake a lot of people make:
they're either cooking the mussels first
or they're cooking the veg first.
You wanna put it all in together.
Normally, they take between five to ten minutes.
Once they're all opened, they're cooked.
This is what people have been cooking in Conwy
for years
you know steaming water and wine
and then you just chuck in whatever.
Whatever is the cheapest veg of the week,
that's what went in the dish.
[Tom laughing πππ]
They're on a natural bed so they're
the only natural growing mussels you can get now
and where they're growing in estuary, they're thriving.
They're getting a mixture between
salt water from the sea,
and fresh water from Snowdonia Valley is coming down
so they're getting fed so well
they're getting nice and fat meat inside,
and that's just what makes 'em taste so nice
[Anthony] You just dipping the bread first?
I'm only dipping that in to let the mussels cool a bit,
but that's what you do with the sauce you know.
Bread from the bakery Popty's
Mmm π
Okay!
Mmm π
Nice.
Beautiful.
Nice and sweet.
This is the sustainable way
that everywhere used to fish for mussels.
It's only as times have changed,
people have done different ways,
rope growing mussels and dredging mussels
But this is the way, this is the traditional way
that was done hundreds of years ago
If you lost hand raking mussels,
you're gonna lose the name a bit of mussels then
cause that's part of it.
It's not just the mussel eating,
it's part of the story,
part of the heritage of Conwy.