E - Escargot

"Escargot" is French for "snail." This maybe one of France's exotic foods - I even saw a tv show where they served this at a high end restaurant, but here in the Philippines it is not really classified as a lavish food, maybe because these snails can be found in lakes or ponds (man made or not).

My sister loves to eat this, and whenever she and her significant other would dine out, they often times eat at Gerry's Grill so they have a serving of escargot (or "kuhol" as we call it here) cooked in coconut milk and shrimp paste. This plate of escargot was our appetizer while waiting for the other foods when we celebrated sister's birthday last December. It was the first time the whole family ate escargot at a restaurant, and we really enjoyed picking the meat in the shell using the provided toothpicks.

Since that day we already told ourselves if we see some snails in the nearby market we would try to re-create this dish, but until now we still haven't seen this particular snail, we would only see other kinds. Oh well... maybe when the rainy day comes. :)

*** Jenn ***