Have you ever wondered why some nations eat food that we westerners considered gross?
Or if they consider some for what we enjoy as gross as well?
Back in 2003, I took a trip to Italy and visited my friend that was serving in the US Navy, based in Sicily. It was a wonderful trip with so many memorable moments. Although I’m a lover of history, and was amazed when I stepped inside the ruin remains of the colosseum in Rome, where actual gladiators fought, walking into an Italian marketplace one Sunday with my friend was one memory that remained with me to this day.
It wasn’t of seeing all the different types of Italian foods, clothing, or even the mixture of different cultures.
It was of snails.
Snails?
But what is so memorable about that? You might wonder.
Well, when I saw them, they were not crawling around on the ground like regular invertebrates. They were crawling around in boxes being sold as was any other meat kind. Even though I grow up knowing the French eat snails as a delicacy, they call escargot—the way they were presented shocked me and grossed me out.
While writing my third book- A Shattered Life Restored, which is based in France, that whole marketplace experience was something that got written in the story as well, which opened the main character’s eyes to different foods than what she was accustomed to back in Jamaica. It was incorporated to piqued readers curiosity to that of different culture’s cuisine.
What I learned also in my little research as to why the French eat snails, was for its unique taste. That it’s not regular garden snails that is used, as they believe that those carry a parasite which caused meningitis.
Also, that these snails are cooked in parsley, butter and garlic while in the shell. However, this is after they go through a three days water fast before farmers harvest then a week-long diet of water and flour for purification purposes.
This brings me to another question: Have you ever travelled to a new country and experience food you considered unedible and tried it?