I can now add to my CV TRUE intrepid food adventurer. We wanted to seize the day, step out of our foodie comfort zone so we slipped (a wee bit apprehensively) on our adventurous hats. We traversed the same side street to fill our bellies at another local tapas restaurant. SNAILS were on their menu, we were ready...so I thought. I inquired about the snails. Our waiter communicated mainly in Spanish interspersed with broken English. I communicated mainly in English intersprinkled with lots of hand and arm actions and extremely limited Spanish (primarily 'thank you' and 'please'). Finally, after much successful conversation about the snails, our waiter thought it was best to show me the snails...he led me to the tapas counter inside the restaurant.
Perhaps it was the lighting but the snails did not look appertising, a little more slimy than I prefer my food to look and taste and, to me, they resembled your very average garden variety snail. The waiter did not appear too impressed by the snails and when I asked if he would order the snails he vigorously shook his head and clearly said no. The 'No' could not be mistaken whether we were speaking Spanish, English or Chinese. Taking this as a sure sign not to order the snails I in turn shook my head and almost shouted my NO.
Despite not ordering the snails we were still spoilt with many dishes of which we ordered chicken wings, fried green pimento peppers, fried calamari, Andalusian squid and chorizo sausages. As we gracefully shovelled down our food our waiter, with a glint in his eyes, brought as a 'gift' a small plate housing the earlier mentioned snails...SHOCK, HORROR...but feigning delightful surprise - very badly. Up close they looked even less appetising. Our waiter was happily sauntering off when I grabbed his arm and, without truly thinking it through, I uttered that if he ate one then I would also eat one. Secretly, I was hoping that he would decline my equally mischievous invitation because he disliked snails. SHOCK, HORROR once again overcame me as our waiter called my bluff and devoured one.
So, with my adventurous hat still on (even though I did try to desperately shake it off) I had no choice but to eat one myself. Inside my head I was chanting "Do it quickly and it won't hurt one little bit". But as I was pulling one out of its shell I had to stop and close my eyes because unlike our waiter's snail, which looked small and shrivelled up, mine was plump (elephantine for a snail) and more juicy and knobbly than I wanted my first snail to be. With eyes tightly shut, I popped the slippy sucker in and chewed very quickly while reaching for a large glass of water. My three-year-old swiftly declined without even being asked...I think this was probably based upon my facial expressions (no photos, I am sorry). My hubby tried one and galantly declared that there was nothing to it. But his snail was definitely much smaller than mine. I did see him reach for the glass of water though...
So, with my adventurous hat still on (even though I did try to desperately shake it off) I had no choice but to eat one myself. Inside my head I was chanting "Do it quickly and it won't hurt one little bit". But as I was pulling one out of its shell I had to stop and close my eyes because unlike our waiter's snail, which looked small and shrivelled up, mine was plump (elephantine for a snail) and more juicy and knobbly than I wanted my first snail to be. With eyes tightly shut, I popped the slippy sucker in and chewed very quickly while reaching for a large glass of water. My three-year-old swiftly declined without even being asked...I think this was probably based upon my facial expressions (no photos, I am sorry). My hubby tried one and galantly declared that there was nothing to it. But his snail was definitely much smaller than mine. I did see him reach for the glass of water though...
