Friday, September 30, 2005
Snail Studies 1002
A postscript to the snail watching, and a warning to all mothers...
D'Arcy had been talking about snails a lot, and somehow (as you do) we got on to the topic of edible snails (escargots). I made the observation that when I was small you could go to the deli and buy a jar, or tin, of snails with the shells in a container on the top, for serving them. D'Arcy was, of course, fascinated. So yesterday when we walked past a deli, the topic came up once again..."mummy, do they have the kind of snails you can eat?". (Now let me say this - I have eaten escargots in my youth, and thought that they were a fine and good foodstuff, I had no qualms here.) So I said, "lets see". We looked around to no avail, until D'Arcy spied the proprietor of the deli, and bowled up to him saying "Excuse me, but do you have the kind of snails you can eat?" the man looked a little taken aback, but recovered well, and replied "yes, I think I do have some". And he did. No longer do they come with shells (something about importation laws and quarrantine and all that), and they come from Indonesia rather than Europe (cheaper), but at $4.00 a tin I thought it was an investment worth the risk.
Turns out the guy is Greek and was enthused at the idea of a small person wanting to eat snails, so readily offered me some recipes (pasta sauce with onions, tomatoes and cream seemed like the most likely). He reckoned that snails done in this way were one of the high points of hanging out with his grandmother in Greece as a child. So we bought the snails, took them home, and set about making the pasta sauce.
All goes well until the time came to open the snails. Well, they smelled awful. But not exactly 'off', just horrid. D'Arcy responded by holding his nose, and refusing to come anywhere near them, Even after I'd drained and rinsed them it was still there a bit, kind of like worm juice from my composting worm farm. So, I ate one to prove to D'Arcy that it could be done, but that, my friends was as far as it went. I think he might have tried one too, but I'm not sure. He was still convinced that he wanted them in his dinner, but I just couldn't face it. So I said, "you can have them in your dinner if you want, but I don't want them in mine" and he was coming up with all these plans for sneaking them into my dinner while I wasn't watching, or while I went to get a drink.
A sad but true ending to a story of intrepid meal choices. In general, D'Arcy eats bugger all, and it was tragic to have him decide not to eat something because I couldn't face it - I try to model non-fussiness in food choices, not to mention offering him a range of stuff to choose from at each meal. He likes carbohydrates and not much else. Ah, fruit. Won't eat any vegies, but will eat fruit (including tomato and cucumber). In the end we had a tomato/sour cream pasta sauce, but with anchovies instead of the snails, and D'Arcy ate some of that, while still joking about the snails. At least he got a good laugh out of it. And perhaps he got something out of seeing someone else not wanting to eat something because it looked or smelled weird.
One of the things that grossed me out about them, the final straw, after the smell, was just how much they look like little labia minora. I couldn't face the idea of eating all those tiny little girly bits. Of course I failed to mention this problem to D'Arcy.
Dinner tonight was a different story altogther. I asked him what he wanted, on the way home from pre-school, partly to keep him awake. After a false start when I offered pasta and pesto, he came up with a full meal plan - baked potatoes with cheese and a tomato/bean sauce, and yoghurt for dessert. Now whether it was that he had seen my fallibity with the snails, or some other factor, but he had never been this 'together' before. At the monster hour all I can get out of him is whinging and 'no, not that' in response to my suggestions.
We got home, and made it, and he ate it. Mostly. He had had a banana, some bagel crisps, some yoshino peanuts and a drink as a "mummy, I'm hungry, what can I eat?" series of emergencey snacks before I actually got dinner on the table, but I've been trying to be more relaxed about pre-meal snacking, as long as it isn't snacking on junk. Bed was achieved with a minimum of fuss and buggering around, a miracle given that he hasn't had an afternoon sleep all week! He'll be 5 soon - we went and organised a birthday present for him yesterday. His dad and I are getting him a bike, he's pretty excited, and helped me choose it, but we didn't bring it home, I'll pick it up next week when he's at his dad's. How did my baby get so big?
D'Arcy had been talking about snails a lot, and somehow (as you do) we got on to the topic of edible snails (escargots). I made the observation that when I was small you could go to the deli and buy a jar, or tin, of snails with the shells in a container on the top, for serving them. D'Arcy was, of course, fascinated. So yesterday when we walked past a deli, the topic came up once again..."mummy, do they have the kind of snails you can eat?". (Now let me say this - I have eaten escargots in my youth, and thought that they were a fine and good foodstuff, I had no qualms here.) So I said, "lets see". We looked around to no avail, until D'Arcy spied the proprietor of the deli, and bowled up to him saying "Excuse me, but do you have the kind of snails you can eat?" the man looked a little taken aback, but recovered well, and replied "yes, I think I do have some". And he did. No longer do they come with shells (something about importation laws and quarrantine and all that), and they come from Indonesia rather than Europe (cheaper), but at $4.00 a tin I thought it was an investment worth the risk.
Turns out the guy is Greek and was enthused at the idea of a small person wanting to eat snails, so readily offered me some recipes (pasta sauce with onions, tomatoes and cream seemed like the most likely). He reckoned that snails done in this way were one of the high points of hanging out with his grandmother in Greece as a child. So we bought the snails, took them home, and set about making the pasta sauce.
All goes well until the time came to open the snails. Well, they smelled awful. But not exactly 'off', just horrid. D'Arcy responded by holding his nose, and refusing to come anywhere near them, Even after I'd drained and rinsed them it was still there a bit, kind of like worm juice from my composting worm farm. So, I ate one to prove to D'Arcy that it could be done, but that, my friends was as far as it went. I think he might have tried one too, but I'm not sure. He was still convinced that he wanted them in his dinner, but I just couldn't face it. So I said, "you can have them in your dinner if you want, but I don't want them in mine" and he was coming up with all these plans for sneaking them into my dinner while I wasn't watching, or while I went to get a drink.
A sad but true ending to a story of intrepid meal choices. In general, D'Arcy eats bugger all, and it was tragic to have him decide not to eat something because I couldn't face it - I try to model non-fussiness in food choices, not to mention offering him a range of stuff to choose from at each meal. He likes carbohydrates and not much else. Ah, fruit. Won't eat any vegies, but will eat fruit (including tomato and cucumber). In the end we had a tomato/sour cream pasta sauce, but with anchovies instead of the snails, and D'Arcy ate some of that, while still joking about the snails. At least he got a good laugh out of it. And perhaps he got something out of seeing someone else not wanting to eat something because it looked or smelled weird.
One of the things that grossed me out about them, the final straw, after the smell, was just how much they look like little labia minora. I couldn't face the idea of eating all those tiny little girly bits. Of course I failed to mention this problem to D'Arcy.
Dinner tonight was a different story altogther. I asked him what he wanted, on the way home from pre-school, partly to keep him awake. After a false start when I offered pasta and pesto, he came up with a full meal plan - baked potatoes with cheese and a tomato/bean sauce, and yoghurt for dessert. Now whether it was that he had seen my fallibity with the snails, or some other factor, but he had never been this 'together' before. At the monster hour all I can get out of him is whinging and 'no, not that' in response to my suggestions.
We got home, and made it, and he ate it. Mostly. He had had a banana, some bagel crisps, some yoshino peanuts and a drink as a "mummy, I'm hungry, what can I eat?" series of emergencey snacks before I actually got dinner on the table, but I've been trying to be more relaxed about pre-meal snacking, as long as it isn't snacking on junk. Bed was achieved with a minimum of fuss and buggering around, a miracle given that he hasn't had an afternoon sleep all week! He'll be 5 soon - we went and organised a birthday present for him yesterday. His dad and I are getting him a bike, he's pretty excited, and helped me choose it, but we didn't bring it home, I'll pick it up next week when he's at his dad's. How did my baby get so big?
# posted by Mummy/Crit : 10:09 PM
