A handful of coques…..

The best laid plans …pointless to continue as I’ve laid as many brilliant plans as I have eggs. Brilliant planning is not in my remit. I am passing through this vale of tears flying by the seat of my pants which, I give you, is an unusual way to travel. Yesterday the sun was shining in a very unoctoberish way which bode well for my “plan” to photograph  seafood for an unforgiving on line client. At the poissonerie I carefully selected some sweet moules de bouchot, a trio of langoustines and a handful of coques. The French are mad for coques, which may not be the hottest news, but I thought I should enlighten those of you who were unaware of this predilection. I was remembering how interested I was on first seeing groups of Frenchies  scrabbling for coques on summer beaches. They would declare, that in those summer months, nothing was more pleasing at lunchtime than several glasses of white wine followed by plenty of coques. The Spirit of Benny Hill could carry me along this course for a while yet but the light was fading creating a contradiction in the conjunction of  daylight and photography. Flash and coques go together like 6 months community service  and indecent exposure, so that’s the route I chose. Fruits de mer, like fruits from a tree, are the fastest of foods. They need no embellishment or cooking – they are stomach ready. On the other hand I love coques and mussels ( you can see why Molly Malone changed the words) cooked in their own juices with just the addition of some oil, shallots and thin strips of red pepper.