Eating Escargot

Escargot

Considering the fact that I would be going to France for a year, I decided it would be a good idea to start getting used to eating meat.  Now I was raised vegetarian for 14 years of my life, by choice.  However while traveling around in Spain I had my first taste of meat.  Which let me tell you, was EXTRAORDINARILY hard.  I was the type of vegetarian that wouldn’t eat ANY meat not even things with meat sauce.  And of course the place I start eating meat is the country of seafood and pork.  I started with the hard things shrimp, calamari in its own ink, and clams.  I only ate these things though when I had to, in restaurants and peoples houses.  When I returned to the USA I stopped eating meat again.  That is until I applied for AFS.

France is one of the only countries that required the AFS students to sign a sheet saying they are not vegetarian.  So I decided I’d better start eating meat quick so I could be to the point where I enjoyed meat and didn’t make faces while eating it.  So I started going through foods I hadn’t eaten before so that I could get to the point where I would in theory ‘like everything’.  Of course considering I was going to France, one of the things I knew I had to try was escargot.Escargot snailsSo my mom and I went to our local French restaurant Brasserie Four I ordered the escargot and didn’t know what to expect.  What I found was a small dish that reminded me of a tapas dish with 6 little cups, each of which containing a snail.  It was in hot garlic butter and brought with slices of baguette.  The garlic butter smelled amazing but I wasn’t sure how I felt about the snails.  But I had to try it before France so I wouldn’t be as nervous about having them the next time.  EscargotI think the worst part about it was looking at the shape of a snail on a piece of fresh French bread,  After staring with wide eyes for a while I finally mustered the strength to eat it.  For your amusement, here is how it went in pictures.   Trying EscargotEating EscargotTrying new foodYep, that is me eating escargot for the first time.  Okay, well not the first time technically.  The first time was in France when my dear dad didn’t wash the lettuce very well and I ended up with a whole snail, shell and all as a not so tasty surprise.  Read more about THAT encounter with escargot here.  Oh and also here is proof I actually finished all the snails.  Okay all but 2, my mom got the courage to help a little. Escargot Plate

My host family and escargot

So I was pretty proud that I could eat escargot in France with my host family at some point.  Probably not even making any faces, to show my respect.  So I mentioned escargot to my host family at one point during my first week.

“Escargot?  Oh we don’t eat that.  We don’t like the idea of eating snails.”  Haha naturally.

“But we do make the garlic butter and bread with mushrooms.”  Yum!  I could eat mushrooms in that amazing garlic sauce every day!

I am very blessed, my host family eats AMAZING food for every meal!  always leaving me full and very happy.  More updates on my life in France soon!

Comments

Eating Escargot — 2 Comments