Escargot Day

Escargot in garlic butter. © Skeeze / pixabay.com / 2010 / CC0 1.0

The 24th of May is Escargot Day.

Escargot had their heyday in the 1970s, when everyone ate them at restaurants with garlic butter and bought the Escargot dishes for home use (but couldn’t actually bring themselves to go the next step and buy the slimy little critters for use in their own kitchen.)

Mind you, as some food writers have observed, you could simmer golf balls in that sauce and they would taste good. ^[1]This was Jean Paré. Schultz, Judy. Jean Paré: An Appetite for Life. Edmonton, Alberta: Company’s Company Publishing Limited. 2006.

You may wish to finally try cooking up escargot in garlic sauce at home. You may even wish to hold a snail race before cooking up your meal; perhaps the winner gets set free in a neighbour’s garden.

No doubt many gardeners would happily supply the Escargot enthusiasts amongst us with a lifetime supply of all the snails they can swallow (though you’re best to give such offers a miss: like mushrooms, not all snails are considered good, or even safe, to eat.)

Many people will no doubt decide to give this entire day a miss. Some are so repulsed by the thought of “slimy snails” that they say it might as well be “National Eat-Your-Own-Snot Day.”

A big promoter of the day is the Café Rouge chain in Scotland and England. They have promoted it since at least 2004, featured “Gratin d’escargots à l’ail” on their menus throughout May.

#EscargotDay

Sources

Foodepedia. Don’t be slow to try an Escargot at Cafe Rouge. 24 May 2010. Accessed August 2018 at http://www.foodepedia.co.uk/restaurant-news/2010/may/rouge_escargot.htm

Krawczyk, Emeri. A Snails Chase: May 24 is National Escargot Day. Buffalo, New York: Buffalo News. 23 May 2016.

Rivera, Lizzie. National Escargot Day: The Best Ways to Cook and Eat Snails. London: The Independent. 23 May 2016.