One of Rotterdam’s most famous fish restaurants, Kaat Mossel, will have the honour of being the very first restaurant in the Netherlands to receive the new harvest of mussels on Tuesday, June 28. These are the Zeeland bottom-culture mussels, whose season usually starts at the beginning of July and lasts about nine months.
Ron Hirt, owner and head chef of the well-known Rotterdam fish restaurant is proud to receive the first bale of this typical product of Zeeland. ”Because, to be honest it’s always a battle with the colleagues in Zeeland every year.”
The exact starting date of the season for bottom cultivated mussels depends on the supply and quality of the mussels. Which in turn depends on the weather in the spring. Ron Hirt says: ‘We work closely with Aqua-Triton Mussel, the largest mussel breeder and processor in Northwest Europe. They select the mussels for us according to their size; with a lot of fish meat in the shell, larger than the jumbo variety. As soon as they can no longer supply them, the season ends for us. That is usually in March.”
Kaat Mossel adds new flavours
This year, the chef at Kaat Mossel will be adding new flavours to his menu. In addition to the neutral and Provenรงal flavour, the spicy variant and mussels with Pernod, Ron is introducing Oriental-style mussels and a Spanish flavour variant. Every day, Kaat Mossel expects to serve around 100 pans of mussels to its guests. That is about 120-150 kilos of mussels.
Kaat Mossel is a household name in Rotterdam for over 30 years. A friendly restaurant where guests come for the mussel dishes and fish specialities, but where they can also enjoy meat dishes. The name Kaat Mossel refers to the historical figure Catharina ‘Caetje’ Mulder, a Rotterdam mussel inspector who was feared for her big mouth. Two years ago, the restaurant was hit by a devastating fire and, like its colleagues, suffered greatly because of Covid-19. But now the completely renovated restaurant at Admiraliteitskade 85 is up and running again. Guests can go there from Monday to Saturday for lunch and dinner.
