that go together as well as a giant bowl of steaming hot chilli mussels and a chilled glass of WA's world-renowned sauvignon blanc. The combination of the two would be delicious enough in the confines of one's home but when you get to taste a West Australian speciality in Western Australia, in an arty (so casual it's chic) dockside town just as the sun sets over shimmering teal waters... well, it's not just delicious – its downright delectable.
Chilli mussels & chillled wine with friends – this was how my second day in Australia drew to a close in a little town called Fremantle, in a watering hole and eatery called the Little Creatures Brewery. After an afternoon of strolling around the streets, exploring hole in the wall (literally!) galleries, posing for photographs atop a giant canon at the historic Roundhouse (any excuse for the Three Musketeers to up the embarrassment ante), and indulging in a little retail therapy (you gotta love having family birthdays as a perfectly valid excuse to buy pretty things at a gorgeous shop called 'Almost Alice'), we found ourselves drawn to a large building with a VW combi circa 1960 parked outside offering a resting place for a blackboard with the words 'Welcome to the brewhouse' sketchily written among pink and purple chalk flowers. Then a blackboard caught my eye boasting about 'the best chilli mussels in town!' There wasn't much to discuss... "Could we get a table for three, please?"
You see, ever since I read (in The Lonely Planet) that you simply couldn't visit WA without sampling a bowl of chilli mussels, well, I'd been a tad obsessed. I would have had mussels for breakfast on Day One if my traveling companions hadn't whipped up a mighty impressive vegetarian fry up from scratch within moments of my arrival at the Aussie's lovely seaside home in Madora Bay. I would've had chilli mussels for lunch on Day Two if the Scotsman, the Aussie and the English Rose, hadn't decided that it was time for this braaivleis eating South African to try tofu at a no frills, asian veggie takeaway caf̩. For the record, it's not that bad... just as long as you don't expect it to taste anything like something related to meat Рor feta cheese for that matter, which it resembles only in appearance, not in texture.
Anyways, the long wait for chilli mussels was well worth it, it may have been the setting (the über cool brewery) or
the company (the English Rose and her beau) or the wine (a structured, crisp, Lawson's Dry Hills sauvignon blanc) recommended by our energetic, knowledgeable waiter (who closely resembled a young Heath Ledger), but I will stake my shoe collection on this claim: Those AUD18 Mussels – steamed to perfection with fresh chilli, lime and white wine – are the best I have ever had, toppling the previous title holder (Loch Fyne in London) from the perch it held for almost 8 years. You gorgeous Little Creatures you! Well played...
Image courtesy of the Scotsman (a.k.a Sandy Watt)
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