Thau mussels tipped into a wide flat pan over burning vine cuttings, opened in their own liquor and finished with garlic, parsley and olive oil. Outdoor cooking, eaten straight from a paper tray.
Where to eat it: 2 restaurants across 1 city.
The brasucade takes its name from the occitan brasa, embers, and belongs to the same open-fire tradition as the Camargue grillade. Vine prunings burn hot and fast and give the shellfish a resinous edge that a gas ring cannot. Mussels from the Thau lagoon are the standard, cooked by the kilo in a pan a metre across, shaken rather than stirred, and served the moment the shells open. In Montpellier the dish belongs to the Estivales on the Esplanade and to the food-truck yard at the Marché du Lez rather than to any restaurant menu.
Common allergens: Molluscs
La Street Food du Lez is the covered truck yard at the Marché du Lez, a dozen kitchens sharing benches and the cheapest way to eat by the river.
Try: A rotating yard of food trucks
Order: Split a table and order across three trucks rather than one.
Tip: Trucks rotate through the year, so the line-up you find will not match the one from last season.
The Marché du Lez stacks food trucks, restaurants, a brocante and craft studios along Avenue Raymond Dugrand in Montpellier, the city's weekend food village.
Tip: Come for the street-food village at lunch, stay for Muchacha and the Halles du Lez counters after dark.
More cities are in research. Want brasucade de moules covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.