Pave: What Won't They Eat?

It tastes like undergrowth after the rain.

Dominique Pierru,
snail egg farmer, describing his produce's unique
and somewhat less-than-promising taste
(infra)

Why does this not pique our appetite?

THE HEIGHT OF SLOW-FOOD,
FRANCE SERVES SNAIL CAVIAR

SOISSONS December 20, 2007 (Reuters) - The French started eating snail eggs on a small scale in the 1980s, but the pasteurized product failed to catch on.

A few years ago breeder Dominique Pierru revived the 'caviar d'escargot' by making it more pure and fresh.

At a snail farm near Soissons, 60 km (40 miles) northeast of Paris, Dominique grows the 'Petit Gris' snail and puts thousands of them in a nursery where they lay around 100 small eggs in a single session just once a year.

HELIX ASPERSA
[Photo source: Philippe Wojazer/Reuters]

He feeds the snails on greens and powdered cereals, pampering the animals until they lay a small clutch of little white, pearl-like, eggs. After collecting them and cleaning the eggs in a special hygienic room, Pierru puts them into a brine with special sea salt and some rosemary. Then they are put in jars which are closed in a vacuum.

Pierru hopes to farm 200 kg (440 lb) of eggs this year, and 600 kg in 2008.

THE YUMMY TASTE OF WET UNDERGROWTH
[Photo source: Reuters]

This novelty is pricey. A 120-gram (4.23 oz.) tin will set you back €200 (USD $287.50), though we imagine this is not beyond a profligate bourgeoisie. By comparison, a 125-gram (4.38 oz.)* tin of Petrossian Hackleback Caviar costs USD $150 (€104.28), though a like-sized tin of its top-of-the-line Petrossian Tsar Imperial Ossetra Caviar runs USD $1,040 (€723.38).

Laurent Couegnas, the head chef and owner of the Escargot Montorgeuil restaurant in Paris, which is one of a few places to serve the delicacy:

I once tasted the old caviar d'escargot and I found it dull. But when Dominique let me taste his product, it was something different, very interesting, slightly salty.

RÉSERVEZ VOTRE TABLE

L'ESCARGOT MONTORGEUIL
38 rue de Montorgueil,75001
PARIS France
01 42 36 83 51

[Photo source: ParisDailyPhoto]

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* 2-4 servings.

PFFT (What is this?): Another epicurean refinement from France ½ | Bizarre, expensive, and French 3½ | Rayonnement français ½