Indonesian Inspiration

I've been thinking about the mussels my friend made since Ramadan.  I never tasted them but they were very aromatic.  Yesterday I went to H-Mart and spent $19 on items for 3 meals - pancit, mussels, and udon.  Last night I made pancit with seitan and tonight it was the mussels. 

I called my friend to ask her how to prepare the mussels - she said she's a simple cook and only used garlic,ginger, salt, and white pepper.  Of course I couldn't be bound by such simplicity, so I imagined what Indonesian cooking might taste like and went with garlic, ginger, scallions, celery, a little cilantro, salt, and crushed red pepper.  I made garlic-ginger eggplant on the side and jasmine rice. 

My husband acted like they were the best mussels he'd ever tasted, such that he ate the majority of the bowl (he generally only eats a few).  He drank the broth.