Mussels-by-the-sea

I've just spent the last couple of days at a friend's beach house down on the Victorian surf coast. It's in a small town about 20 minutes past Torquay and Bells Beach; the centre of Australian surfing culture. However, we didn't see a single surfer, mainly as we spent most of our time at the house reading, cooking and sunning ourselves, emerging early each evening for walks along the quiet section of beach near us. It's too early in the Summer season to be spending lots of time in the midday sun on the beach, especially as we're all so fair skinned and the Australian sun is ferocious. I actually ended up with a severe case of Truckie's Arm (sunburnt right arm) from the drive down in the fierce sun, so was quite happy to spend the hottest parts of the day quietly reading.
The day I arrived the others had already been to the seafood market in Lorne to choose our dinner. They found mussels for $5 a kilo or $8 for 2 kilos. I'm told the decision was easy...we had 2 kilos of mussels to eat that night! They were steamed in a sauce of tomatoes, onion, lots of garlic and at least half a bottle of white wine; we used a Tahbilk Marsanne we found open in the fridge, much nicer than what I would use at home! We served our meal over rice and enjoyed the salty smells of the sea in our bowls, our appetites raging after our evening walk through the waves.