The theme for this week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge” is “Hidden”
I know snails are a menace in the garden but I did not have the heart to stamp on him. Instead, I named him “Sid” and later deposited him safely on some adjoining shrubland. Snails (Caracóis) are VERY popular in Portugal and although you often see them on the menu in restaurants, we have never been tempted to order any! The thought of eating the “rubbery” body hiding inside the shell does not “rock my boat”, if I’m perfectly honest.
Fascinated by the attractive pattern on Sid’s shell, and keen to take advantage of a “photo opportunity”, I went off to find my camera. However, by the time I returned Sid was already making his escape!
“Don’t worry Sid your safe; I’ve already eaten lunch!” I joked as I snapped several photographs.
Joking aside could you eat snails? Yuck yuck YUCK brrrrrr
Several years ago our French in-laws kindly invited us over for Christmas. Before we arrived I jokingly said to Mr Piglet “I hope to God we are NOT expected to eat snails!”
Guess what?
Yes, you’ve got it in one, one of the courses was a plateful of garlic snails. As I watched the other guests tucking into their snails with gusto I caught Mr Piglet’s eye. His face, like mine, was a mixture of horror and a look that said “Beam me up Scottie”
Our daughter tried to make light of the situation.
“I don’t mind eating snails now providing I can’t see their little eyes looking at me!”
What happened next?
**************
Here are some other interpretations of the theme “Hidden”
Hurtling towards 60
Redneck Princess
I especially enjoyed Spirit Lights the Way interpretation of “Hidden” It is both ingenious and informative!
Piglet in Portugal 
Hi Jan…what we do for love eh? SPirit Lights the Way ate snails due to love but swallowed them whole. I can’t even swallow tablets whole, yet alone a sanil LOL 🙂
LikeLike
Heh. Calamari tasted “like chewing on battered elastic bands”, to me, too. I’m a veggie, but I was in love then and had to, er, be polite? Kind? Prove myself to him? From the responses you received, I can see I’m not very cosmopolitan.
LikeLike
PiP, Mr Nola and I are fans of the escargot drenched in butter and garlic…I really think its the butter and garlic no so much the…well you know..Sid. LOL!
LikeLike
Hi Jeane I suppose the garlic and butter disguises the taste of the snail!
LikeLike
As you know from our recent exchange on the Julia Child post I did for The Displaced Nation, there’s no way I’d eat snails. That said, I do admire your daughter for her fortitude and sense of humor. (Delia Smith feels the same way you and I do about snails, btw — hence her rather wonderful recipe for garlic mushrooms.)
What I don’t get, though, is how you can give them names and take their photos. Gah! I just want to run away when I see them… Which is a bit silly, I’ll admit, given how slow moving they are…
LikeLike
Hi ML,
I don’t think I will overcome my horror of eating snails…EVER!
I give all the critters who live in my garden names – they are like an extended family. We do all inhabit the same plot of land.
PiP
LikeLike
Great photos of Sid! Like you, I could never eat snails!
LikeLike
Sid is kind of cute! However, I did find another sid or his missus munching on one of my plants this week!
LikeLike
That is so adorable… and poor Sid was trying to get away. I grew up eating snails and they are quite delicious… I’m not kidding. We ate the large and small ones and they have a unique texture and taste… 🙂
LikeLike
Eliz,
I think perhaps if you brought up eating snails it is not as bad perhaps. Not sure about the texture bit 😦
LikeLike
hot & spicy…right up my alley..piri piri..gotta try this……I know very well the challenge of being in the midst of french snail eaters…thank you very much..i’d rather just enjoy the slimy feeling of them crawling up my arm…such precious creatures…. except when they munch on my young pumpkin plant…your phot is outstanding…would be an excellent graphic on a t-shirt or bohemian skirt…nice!!!!
LikeLike
Hi,
I like the idea of turning the design into a pattern for a skirt. the centre of the snail could become the waiste and the pattern and line of skirt go from there!
Not sure I would like him crawling up my arm though 🙂
LikeLike
Ohhh, I love escargot!!! But your Sid is too cute to eat 🙂 Great pics PIP!!
LikeLike
I don’t know about cute RNP I found one of his relatives had munched through one of my plants this afternoon. I did not stamp on him but he was launched into space!
LikeLike
very nice blog, great pics everywhere!
LikeLike
thankyou and I like your music blog!
LikeLike
Your humor/humour continues to make me smile, and Sid looks adorable on that lovely tile pattern. You’ve made my start today a good one!
LikeLike
My friends think I’m mad and Mr Piglet thinks I’m a lost cause!.
LikeLike
Ha, don’t tell my mum she’d be out with the salt and not for seasoning purposes…
LikeLike
LOL 🙂
LikeLike
Hi there, have a good nosey around your blog – love it!!! A great read indeed!
Not sure if this posted twice, but apologies if so 🙂 look forward to reading more!!
LikeLike
Hi Susanne and welcome! See you offer Satelite on the Silver coast…would you like me to add your link to my useful contacts page?
LikeLike
I much like the way the Portuguese cook these creatures than the French. I use to have “snails” cooked with “presunto”, heaps of garlik, tomatoes, toasted bread, and down with the help of one or two cold “imperial” …the one in the photo is what we Portuguese call “caracoleta”… no thank you!
LikeLike
Hi idalina and welcome.
I am a wimp and have never tried snail. the snails I have seen the Portuguese eat in the restaurants have been a lot smaller. PErhaps these are more edible? My friends had a plate of them but when I touched them they were iced cold. I would need to eat mine hot!
LikeLike
I much like the way the Portuguese cook these creatures that the French. I use to have “snails” cooked with “presunto”, heaps of garlik, tomatoes, toasted bread, and down with the help of pne or twocold “imperial” …the one in the photo is what we Portuguese call “caracoleta”… no thank you!
LikeLike
Hi Rose,
That’s a bit of a challenge! How would you finish the story?
LikeLike
So, what DID happen next, PiP? Don’t keep us in suspense!
LikeLike
I get so many snails in my garden eating my plants, but I can´t bring myself to stomp on them, so I just put them in a plastic bag and throw them in the rubbish. It´s that or no vegetables or plants! I never had the guts to try them in Portugal, just as oysters, I think they must be very rubbery.
As for squid, if well done it´s soft, not rubbery. I will be posting a squid recipe soon, I cooked it recently for lunch with South Africans friends and they all asked for the recipe.
LikeLike
Hi Sami,
I used to squash the snails so the birds could eat them :), but to be honest I don’t like to now. If I am gardening the blackbirds do tend to keep an eye on me to see which insects I discard!
It will be interesting to see your squid recipe.
LikeLike
Sid’s a handsome critter. I’m like you, I’d of moved him and spared his life. You have a good heart. 🙂
Nope, I won’t eat the snails either. Yuck! :p
LikeLike
I’ve become an old softy in my Autumn years
LikeLike
Hi there, Yes — even with the bits of confit de canard, you know you’re eating a snail. But it’s pretty easy going — provided that you like garlic and butter!
LikeLike
Perhaps not surprisingly, since I live in the southwest of France, I love escargots. One of the more unusual (and delicious) treatments of them at a restaurant in Sarlat is to smother them in the usual mix of garlic, parsley and butter, but then add chopped confit of duck. I actually much prefer oysters, for all the variety of tastes of the sea that they offer, but snails are pretty darn good too.
LikeLike
Hi Loren,
When they add duck can you still detect you are eating snails? Perhaps if I did not know what I was eating I may actually be able to swallow one, just once! I’ve never tasted oysters, but I would like to try them perhaps next time we are in France.
There is one thing about the French they have a real appreciation of good food and take the time to savour it. I love shopping round the markets in SW France it’s a real orgy of tastes and smells. I especially loved the Saturday market in Valence. there was a stall selling herb plants; it was amazing. I love the cheeses and bread and…and…you are so lucky to live there 🙂
LikeLike
It’s a cultural thing!
LikeLike
Maybe Tilly.
I suppose some people could look at haggis in the same light 🙂
LikeLike
Oh, your snail is huge. I haven’t ate it. Because the dish is delicious, why we can’t let it alive in nature or let them as pets.
LikeLike
Well at least Sid maybe still alive somewhere if the blackbirds did not finish him off for their supper
LikeLike
Piglet these pictures are beautiful. The thought of eating one disgusts me—described perfectly by Lisa above! (I feel the same way about oysters and other slimy food too though.) I always thought mollusks only lived near water, but we have the terrestrial species here in the AZ desert too so I became fascinated with them. Masses of them emerge from the ground during monsoon, then hibernate underground until the next year.
Spirals are a mystical wonder and an ancient and much-used art composition basic. And snails are very primitive yet complex creatures! Sid looks like a helix pomatia, which is a hermaphrodite, but they still need a long courtship with another snail!
Thank you, I enjoyed the pictures and comments very much. If you know the exact taxonomy of Sid, let us know.
LikeLike
Hi Find an Outlet,
Lisa’s description ““Garlic snot balls” is quite apt from our perspective.
From what you are saying about courtship, I seriously hope I did not separate him from his mate!
LikeLike
Lovely photos. I’ve never eaten snails. I love your description of the dinner at your daughter’s in-laws’ house!
LikeLike
It was different to say the least and I did try lots of new food including foie gras which I’d never tasted before. I think with snails it’s probably mind over matter!
LikeLike
I have never tried snails, or had the opportunity to turn them down. I have eaten and enjoyed Calamari, I guess it is similar.. especially in that, if not cooked properly, it can be rubbery.
LikeLike
Hi Maggie,
I’ve tried Calamari in Cyprus and it was like chewing on battered elastic bands.Perhaps, I should try it again 🙂
LikeLike
In college, over Spring Break, I had an island love affair on St. Thomas with a freelance photographer from Vermont.
We went to a restaurant called . . . L’Escargot.
He ordered for me ~ including an appetizer of snails.
I refused to try them . . . until he made it worth my while. 😎
They tasted like garlic butter.
I can’t tell you anythihg about the texture.
I swallowed them WHOLE.
No way was I going to chew on Sid!
Thanks for the shout out!
LikeLike
You were brave Nancy! I’m not sure I could eat a snail, and keep it down, even if I was offeredr a million dollars!
As for swallowing it whole I am such a wimp I have to cut tablets up!
LikeLike
I’m very cowardly when it comes to new and unusual foods, but in a fit of bravado many years ago I tried snails – they’re delicious! If they had a rubbery texture I wouldn’t be able to eat them, but they’re actually quite meaty. Smothered in garlic butter, YUM!
LikeLike
Hortophile I am very impressed by your courage! I eat with my eyes!
LikeLike
Lucky snail! He/she (they are both sexes in one, I think) is beautiful!
LikeLike
I ‘d never thought about snails and sex in the same sentence before 🙂
LikeLike
I much prefer to enjoy snails in photographs and let them, as Sid says, “…live to see another day”! 😉
Their shells always fascinate me. I love the many examples of spirals that we find in nature. Great post, Piglet!! 🙂
LikeLike
Hi LTL,
I am also fascinated by snails! sometimes we have a whole line of them walking along the wall of the house. I often wondered where they’re going,
I am not so fascinated when they eat my plants and they are quickly despatched onto the shrubland!
LikeLike
Love the pictures. I ate snails once in high school, but it they tasted like garlic snot balls to me. I had to get over some squeemishness at trying foods when I lived in Japan, but I learned to eat first and ask questions later. 😛
LikeLike
“Garlic snot balls” is an impressive description! LOL 🙂
LikeLike
Sid lives to see another day hidden in his shell – phew!
LikeLike
Unless the birds found him and ate him for lunch!
LikeLike