This was one of our opening dishes at Lark, and we’ve been serving it every year since! A nod to the timeless Normandy combination of apple cider, smokey bacon, mussels and cream, this is our version. Since the menu is constantly changing and evolving at Lark, we usually run this dish between November and February when my favorite blue shelled mussels from the Jefford Brothers at Penn Cove Shellfish are fat and firm. I see many similarities between our climate in the Pacific Northwest and the West coast Europe, and sometimes when I’m researching a new dish, I’ll often look through one of my favorite French country cookbooks by Patricia Wells or Anne Willan and find inspiration. I hope this recipe will do the same for you!