Eating Snails

Kind of OT, but in France recently I saw some edible dormice. They are cute as. Our French landlady told me they’re not eaten anymore.

Oh, I trapped one when I was a kid. Or maybe I didn’t trap it but we found it somewhere. It was nice!

I’d like to try one.

And what did the Romans do for us?

They also introduced edible snails to Britain. They’re still there after 2000 years.

Apologies. The MACDONALDS crack was a predictable stereotypical cliche, and unfair. Let me amend it.

Most of those people are probably AMERICANS, who will eat, for example, spray-on cheese, and who, by their failure to control corporate greed, are responsible for the ubiquity of trans fats in the global diet, but who won’t eat liver.

Not only Longer and Firmer, but also Fairer, I hope you’ll agree.

If you finally decide to eat them, please let us know how it goes.

For what it’s worth, I have never eaten cheese out of a can in my life, and I’ve eaten liver on numerous occasions. Although it’s not advised to consume too much liver.

I’m 100% with you on America’s greedy corporations playing a large role in ruining the world’s diet. I just don’t think any of this has a whole lot to do with the potential heath hazards of scavenging wild snails.

What about mushrooms?

There are smallish (maybe hazelnut to grape sized) black ones in the ditches and flooded fields that look like Periwinkles but obviously aren’t. Dunno if they are edible but it could be them.

I suppose marine gastropods are safer (but not safe) from a parasite perspective since they are less likely to encounter mammals. Probably no safer from a toxin perspective though.

The ones I’ve seen eaten in Taiwan are as described here. They are found in aborigine dishes.

I’ve also seen them in semi-upscale steak restaurants in Taipei. A special serving dish is used (and I think the snails are cooked in the oven in the dish). The dish has about 8 depressions with a snail in each one.

Can’t get myself to eat them, although I did at a French restaurant often when I was a kid.

" Colonies of A. fulica were introduced as a food reserve for the American military during World War II"

Say WHAT?

Their C-rations must have been pretty bad.

I quite liked ours, especially the steak and kidney pudding, which no one else liked so I got to eat for the battalion.

Come to think ont, that might partly explain my currently constricted carotid.

Sure it does. Its a food web. Everything is connected.

Go on…

IIRC that is a parasite trying to attract a predator so it can complete its life cycle by being eaten.

You’d think predators would evolve corresponding avoidance behaviour, but maybe there hasn’t been time, or the numbers don’t add up.

You can’t say it didn’t warn you, though.

There’s a rat/cat parasite (that people can catch) that renders the smell of cats attractive to rats. Same principle.

Quite!

No, I have no idea which one is which one haha.

Interesting. A friend (well, a subordinate) who used to fish gave me that reason for preferring sea fishing over fresh water fishing. Less parasites.

All of this reminds me how frustrated I am with the abundance of plants and animals in Taiwan and the apparent lack of those that are edible. Why aren’t there more fruit trees and berries? why even farmers avoid planting peppers and go with some other crappy veggies? it drives me crazy.

Not if you’re talking to Lee Marvin. He would disapprove of you.

But then I’d guess you might disapprove of him.

https://twitter.com/colebrax/status/1001688465736720384

Lots of free lichees and mangoes round here in season, but the season corresponds to the grading crisis, so I don’t gather much

The “less parasites” thing doesn’t make much sense unless you are daft enough to eat it raw.

Less heavy metals, OTOH, would.

The local river held the Taiwan all time record for heavy metal pollution.

People didn’t use to fish it, now they do. A few years ago a researcher here told me they approached some anglers and warned them the fish would probably still be toxic.

“Thats OK”…“We don’t eat them”

“Oh, its just a hobby, then?”

“Yes”…“And a bit of pocket money when we sell them”

:nauseated_face:

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How about no

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This was a raw/uncooked slug, to be fair. Eating most animals raw is ill-advised.

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And it was a slug, not a snail.
They are different animals!

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