Eating Snails on Crete
A Cretan Delicacy
Escargots is a well-known French delicacy, though I seldom choose it as it’s such a faff if the snails are still in their shells. I quite like the taste but I prefer it if they’re already out of their shells, which seldom happens.
What’s less well-known is that snails are also a Cretan delicacy, as we discovered a few years ago when we did a food and wine tour of Crete with Go Crete. We highly recommend them as tour organisers, on whatever topic interests you most.
When we visited the Lyrarakis Winery, our guide took us to see an ancient wine press, a short drive from their winery buildings. As we walked to it we passed some bushes which were absolutely covered in snails.
The guide explained that the Cretans got their love for snails during World War II, when sometimes foods were in short supply. Not snails, though! All you had to do was go out and pick them.
Our Go Crete guide Isi had also found a restaurant that specialised in snails: The Snail’s House. It’s in a village called Plouti, about a 30-minute drive east of Matala in the south of the island. They do snails four different ways, so we sampled a bit of each, and they were all delicious, especially the snails with onions, tomatoes, herbs and spices to create a kind of snail stifado.
You still had to prise the snails from their shells, though, at which Isi was remarkably good and we were hopeless. That night Isi took us to a taverna that had some live music, as he knew we were both big music fans. There was no menu, only a succession of plates of meze that kept on coming (as did the wine) till you called a halt.
And guess what one of the dishes was - yes, snails! Again, Isi deftly removed the snails from their shells while we struggled. It was a really good atmosphere so I asked Isi if I could film him showing people how to remove a snail from its shell. He agreed, and of course when on camera he picked a snail that didn’t want to leave home. He struggled to get it out, so much so that the owner came over, joked, and took the snail from Isi and plucked it out perfectly.
That was a good night, and you can see the video on our YouTube channel here.
Cheers!
Mike and Donna
Yummy!