Flexing mussels: Dundrum style

Mussels - served with Lemon and Bay

A day off and nice weather called for a short trip to the coast.  It was a while since we had been down to Murlough Bay at Dundrum and so we set off.  Apart from the Castle, Dundrum's other attraction is the Mourne Seafood Bar. I prefer this place to its Belfast counterpart, probably because of its proximity to the sea. I love its wooden floor and captain's chairs. Art reflecting coastal themes hangs all around from picture rails but today the menu was what we wanted to see. Plenty of choice but what we were really after this lunchtime were mussels. There were four different styles on offer: White wine, garlic and cream; Cider braised;  Indian curry and Lemon and bay.  There were three of us and we each had a different pot - the Indian curry version will live to fight another day.
Mine was the Lemon and bay and as soon as the server lifted the lid of the black enamelled pot I leaned forward to catch the steamy aroma - a bit like a facial sauna.
The lemon was sliced into julienne strips and the bay leaves were broken into fragrant fragments. I tucked in.
I like to eat mussels by using an empty whole shell as a set of pincers; this I find much more effective than a fork.  We had ordered some chips as a side.  Moules frites.  A family favourite, calling up memories of France. We know what we like.
Inevitably we recounted the story of how a trendy Belfast restaurant had served up a pot of mussels with the chips on top - disguising the mussels, making the chips soggy and in the end effectively ruining the dish. "They're under the chips", was the response to "where are the mussels?"  "That's how we do it here".  No such nonsense at Mourne Seafood Bar. The mussels were visible and plump, the chips were lovely and so too were the accompanying breads which we used to soak up the cooking liquour.
Murlough was calling and we headed on to the nearby National Trust property. A boardwalk winds its way through the sand dunes and down to a beach of pebbles and fine sand.  It was almost deserted in the warm sunshine. We sat for a while, taking in the air and the rhythm of the waves.
Nothing too energetic - we had already flexed our mussels.