These days, especially if there has been a shower or rain, individuals can be seem combing the sides of tracks and edges of fields in search of a gourmet favourite – snails.
Not just any old snails, however, but the fat and luscious “trompetas” whose shell swirls into a broad trumpet opening. The snails are captured and then kept in a bucket or container for several days to allow them to clean out their systems. Then they make a tasty addition to many meals.
One neighbour showed Sharon, out for her daily walk, a pile of bricks and tiles that he is going to use to make a proper “snail house.” At present he has a wooden affair with chicken wire over the top and a hinged door, but he is moving up-market with the new permanent facility.
“The best way to eat snails is with pork chops,” he explained. “But you mustn’t use too many. About a dozen will do as you want them for the flavouring. Delicious!”
A very popular dish throughout Murcia is rice with snails. There is great rivalry between the cities of Cartagena, which is truly ancient, and Murcia, which is an upstart only founded in the 9th century. The same story is told in both places to illustrate the meanness of the other, with the cities being switched around. The Cartagena version goes: “In Murcia they will serve you rice with snails. Here in Cartagena we serve snails with rice.”
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©Phillip Bruce 2009.
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