A brief break from my travel musings to concentrate on the food of the holy times ahead of us...
A favorite lenten meal in Crete consists of snails, boiled or fried, spiced up with vinegar and rosemary, as the following mantinada (Cretan form of poetry) attests:
"Ο Κρητικός στη ξενιτειά πόσα λεφτά δε δίδει
να βρει μπουμπουριστούς χοχλιούς να φάει με το ξύδι;"
Oh, how much would a Cretan pay if he could only track
some fried snails dressed in vinegar when in a foreign land?
να βρει μπουμπουριστούς χοχλιούς να φάει με το ξύδι;"
Oh, how much would a Cretan pay if he could only track
some fried snails dressed in vinegar when in a foreign land?
Coincidentally, I saw many people at Le Chartier ordering the snail dish, the most expensive entree on the menu. The snail shells were huge, up to three (yes, that's 3!) times the size of the snail shells depicted here. I couldn't bring myself to order them, for similar reasons to the opinion expressed by the protagonist of this story...
(from 'The Roots of the Greeks: The Cretans', 2009, Pigasos Ekdotiki - Pegasus Publications, translated from the Greek)
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If you can get them at home like the fellow in the story why have an expensive meal at a restaurant. I agree.
ReplyDeletei'm still wondering how different they tasted - maybe i should have tried them...
ReplyDeleteIn my humble opinion, your dish surely tastes better than the restaurant one - already for the fact that you've picked the ingredients by yourself, and then prepared them in your kitchen with love and care
ReplyDeleteOne day I will visit you and I will try snails...I consider myself to be adventurous, but something always stops me. The vinegar and rosemary dressing sounds lovely!
ReplyDeleteMaria, you know I'm all over this dish...have a wonderful Palm Sunday.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was small in the UK we used to get 'winkles' or sea snails which are a lot smaller than these. They were boiled and served with plenty of salt and vinegar picked out of the shell with a needle of all things. I haven't had snails here but I wouldn't be opposed to giving them a try.
ReplyDeleteThe best snails I've ever had was in Hania in Holy week some 20 yrs ago, oven baked with tomato sauce and onions. I've given them a try a few times more, they seem to be popular in greek islands but they were tiny and none of them were as fleshy and nice as the Hania ones. In Macedonia they are very popular with the Pontians and I first tried them at a pontian house, nice and fleshy as well.
ReplyDeleteI just posted about the ones in my garden. We have the giant African variety. I like the way you use what you have available to best effect.
ReplyDelete