Snailsssssssss

Bové snails 'a la llauna´

Viñala snails with black pepper and ham

Snails are not everybody's cup of tea though in Europe, land snails are consumed regularly. The slime element is a deterrent for sure but when cooked, they are not slimy at all but almost firm, like a chicken thigh! Funny how we find slime so revolting almost globally and yet no one finds milk, which contains cow pus, as gross- oh well, that is for another post or maybe another blog!

Edible snails are either land, freshwater or saltwater snails. There are two main species of edible snails: the ones that have "helix" in the scientific name (for their spiral, circular shells) and "achatine." Helix snails are a European species.

Tis true that there is some prep needed to eat snails but a lot of food needs prep. I always prefer to eat these critters in a restaurant well known for making them. There is one such place about an hour away from the city, where I had a divine feast of 4 different snail dishes with 2 varieties of snails - the 'Viñala' and the smaller 'Bové'. On the top left, I particularly liked this latter variety of snail - small, firm and almost crunchy. Oven baked in a special oven dish or 'llauna', the garlicky oil with the parsley chiffonade made this delicious!

Next you see snails with black pepper and ham, using the bigger and mushier Viñala snails. Mmmmm

Did you know that the French word for snail, 'Escargot' is the common name for snails when they are to be eaten in a dish? Millions of pounds of snails are consumed around the world annually. In fact, there is even a day to celebrate it! May 24th is the National Escargot Day. 

There are many different types of edible snails in the world. The most common are:
Helix aspersa - also called the "small grey snail."
Helix pomatia - also called "the Roman snail."

Viñala snails with chocolate sauce

In California and Japan some edible snails are called Abalone.
In Greece they are called Tsalingaria.

In other parts of Europe and South Africa there is the Periwinkle Snail.

In the West Indies they eat a snail called the Queen Conch.

One of the 4 snail dishes we had was almost Mexican in its sauce; snails accompanied by pigs' trotters in a chocolate sauce - was an interesting combo as one tries hard to get rid of the sweet taste that chocolate is associated with in your brain to the actuality, a thick sauce with a small note of sweet and entirely devoid of the bitter which is characteristic of dark chocolate. It makes me wonder why chocolate isn't more often used in savoury cooking

Viñala snails cooked with chorizo

The last was a particularly tasty snail dish with chorizo sausage cooked into the sauce - doesn't it look delicious? The richness of this paprika sausage gave these little beasties a particularly spicy sort of taste....just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Is your watering too?