Escar-Woah

Back in the day, like way back, the Roman big shots thought snails were a delicacy. And it isn’t just the Romans, countries like France, Spain, Italy, India, and the USA have jumped on the Escargot train.

Here are just a few escargot/snail facts you may not know. 

• It is believed that snails for eating were brought to the United States (California) in the 1850’s.

• The French consume 40,000 metric tons of snails each year.

• May 24th is National Escargot Day.

• Heliculture is the science of growing snails for food.

• Snails are almost blind, and they don’t have any aural systems meaning that they can’t hear anything.

• American restaurants serve about 1 billion snails annually.

• Like most molluscs, escargot is high in protein and low in fat content (if cooked without butter). It is estimated that escargot is 15% protein, 2.4% fat and about 80% water.

• Even the lazy sloth and the lumbering tortoise have nothing on the snail’s complete lack of speed. Some snails clock in at 0.0004 miles an hour.

• Research has shown that some snail slime can be used to treat stomach ulcers.