Description: The single's guide to growing, cooking and savoring food
When I walked into the dark, small corner bar I smelled wood. Old barrel wood that gave life to wines and vermouths. Once inside I sat on a high bar stood surrounded by wood barrels and took a deep breath. I’d been walking for a couple miles throughout Valencia, Spain, and had a hankering for mussels and a cold, crisp glass of white wine. So what better place to go than one of the oldest restaurants in Valencia, Casa Montaña , which opened in 1836.
Valencian mussels are available during the summer months. Photos by Christine Willmsen
As the waitress and even the menu described, these aren’t your average mussels and nothing like the typical mussels we find in the United States or in the Seattle area where blue or bay mussels , also known as Foolish mussels , are glued to rock beds.