Saturday, May 02, 2009

Trying New Things

While out to lunch with friends the other day on a scheduled visit to several facilities (I'll have a separate post for that), I was able to once again try something new that I have not eaten.

We were at a traditional Okinawan restaurant (which can be very different from a Japanese restaurant, mind you). I ordered the fried shrimp set (which was very yummy by the way). Along with it came a small side dish of snails (just two). I had never eaten snails before. These were not the round type like I believe escargo is made from. These ones almost looked like hermit crab shells (only smaller). They were less than an inch long.

They had been steamed and then flavored with soy sauce but were served chilled. The idea was to pick up the shell, pick at the meat with a toothpick and pop it all out at once and then eat it. I was suprised at how good it was....tasted a bit like any other mussle or clam you might eat from the ocean. I think the ladies were suprised that I wasn't grossed out but I am usually willing to give anything a try once.

Here is a picture of my set. It has the fried shrimp with tartar sauce, some rice, some miso soup, some seawead salad, some american style salad, an egg pudding (that is not sweet and have meat hidden down in it), some pickled radish, and the snails are in the top right hand dish.


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2 comments:

Chicken said...

Wow I think that would have been difficult for me but I may have been able to pull it off. Although I am not into mussles so it may have not worked.

... said...

I have been told now that they are a type of sea snail...not a regular snail but I am imagining a regular snail would be of the same consistency once cooked.