Encounters With Escargot

If ever my mind wandered to the thought of escargot, I thought of France.  But, if someone would have told me three years ago I would be sitting on the French riviera eating escargot (snails) with my dinner I would have laughed.

The only thing was I didn’t want to eat snails.   I was peacefully eating a salad when something crunched in my mouth.  Yup, snail.  Of course I was very good about not freaking out (well, sort of…).  After recovering, the next day I started wondering about escargot.

Why is it so fancy?
How is it prepared?
How is it eaten?
So I decided to look up the answers I needed.

Fun facts

Snails have been eaten since at least the ancient Roman times.  Back when people would eat anything to survive.  Now it has turned into a fancy appetizer in restaurants.  Restaurants serve over 1 million snails annually!  Crazy!  Snails can be served many different ways, cooked with olive oil and garlic with sauces, or  over pasta.

In France escargot has gotten a lot more expensive since it is in such demand.   Now there is even a National Escargot day on May 24th!  The two most common eating snails are the Burgundy snail and the Petite-Gris snail.

Here is the proper way to eat escargot

I had never thought reading about escargot could be so interesting!  Even though I doubt I will be eating any more snails any time soon it was very interesting to learn some fun facts.