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6rant6's avatar

What's your take on eating escargot?

Asked by 6rant6 (13705points) January 7th, 2010

I’m interested in what people think about eating snails.

Do you know what they taste like? Would you order them in a restaurant? How nutritious do you think they are? Do you think of them as expensive or inexpensive, easy to prepare or difficult to prepare? If you aren’t squeamish, why don’t you eat them more often? How do you like them prepared? If you have eaten them, what associations do you have with eating snails?

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19 Answers

Dr_Dredd's avatar

I ate them once, in a Chinese restaurant. They didn’t really taste like much; the taste reflected the sauce they were in.

I’m not squeamish, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat snails again. Not worth the price.

ChocolateReigns's avatar

One word—gross. That’s all I have to say.

dpworkin's avatar

It depends on how they are prepared and how fresh they are. They can be really delicious, boring, or disgusting.

zephyr826's avatar

I love escargots! In my experience, they usually taste like the sauce they’re in (mmm, butter, white wine, and garlic). However, they’re not readily available in the are of the country where I live, and they’re too expensive for a frequent thing. However, I usually order them if they’re available, as a treat.

eenerweiner's avatar

I have never eaten them, I couldn’t get past the appearance. They looked like wads of snot in sauce.

Blackberry's avatar

I’ve only seen them in a restaurant once, and I didn’t get them because of the price, though I try new things. So I guess I would try them if they were less scarce and cheaper.

dpworkin's avatar

Know what’s really good? Periwinkles!

Michael_Huntington's avatar

I’ve had Escargot in Quebec. It was all right, pretty much what @zephyr826 said
Doesn’t beat frogs, though.

dpworkin's avatar

Mmmm, frog legs! Especially in a good Vietnamese restaurant.

kirforce's avatar

Check out this commical blog on Sunset: Team Escargot

aprilsimnel's avatar

I had escargot once. Kinda rubbery. Maybe they weren’t cooked properly or were old snails.

zephyr826's avatar

@kirforce lurve for the blog. It makes me wonder if I could find snails and keep them away from the cat long enough to purge.

wonderingwhy's avatar

They’re sort of bland by themselves, maybe a bit like hard cooked muscles. I’ve ordered them numerous times and had a favorite little french place run by Vietnamese that did them exquisitely with butter, garlic, white wine and lavender (save for the lavender, butter/garlic and butter/garlic/wine sauce is very common). Just about every time I order them I think of that place, some seriously good memories. Here’s a nutrition link (http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/finfish-and-shellfish-products/7742/2) just remember cooking them changes it a bit and drowning them in butter isn’t doing any favors for your body, though it sure tastes good! They are usually fairly pricey ($8–15 for 6 but I’ve seen $24 for 8 which I thought was over priced considering the standard preparation) but I suspect that depends on the restaurant, location, and availability. They’re easy to prepare and easy to over cook, I’ve done it a couple times when I’ve been able to find them fresh (don’t know about the canned ones), if you can bake squid without it becoming rubbery you should be able to handle snails. They’re also good in pasta, I’ve done them with olive oil, red pepper, and grey salt over home made linguini which was great and had them in red sauce before which was good but the tomato seemed to over power them.

Give them a try! They’re really pretty easy to eat compared to some other “acquired tastes” but make sure you go to a restaurant you like/trust for the first time lest you get a poor quality serving.

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

My favorite is the old apetizer recipe Escargot a la Provence served with slices of toasted garlicky bagette and a Pinot Grigio. I’ve had them other ways, but this is the best for me. It’s a nice afternoon thing.

If you want to know anything about European cooking and it’s later hybrids, consult the Larousse Gastronomique. The English language translation has been available since 1936 with a preface by the great Georges August Escoffier. This is the bible of European cooking.

tinyfaery's avatar

Eww…I classify that as weird and I don’t eat weird stuff.

gailcalled's avatar

Anything drowned in garlic, clarified butter and chopped fresh parsley can be eaten.

tinyfaery's avatar

@gailcalled Frying works like that, too.

jf9434's avatar

I had snails once in Spain: they were great!! They weren’t prepared the French way, so they weren’t really escargot. They were spicy and served informally with toothpicks. Very fun to eat!

YARNLADY's avatar

Bland, overpriced, not worth it.

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