Escargot

Escargot is the French-derived culinary term for edible land snails eaten as food across many cultures, though in other cultures snails are regarded as a taboo food; they are consumed in areas such as Africa, Southeast Asia and Mediterranean Europe. The most commercially important species are Helix pomatia, the Roman or Burgundy snail, the most consumed species in France, and Cornu aspersum, the common garden snail known in France as petit-gris, while the giant African snail, Lissachatina fulica, is widely eaten in Asian markets. Before cooking, snails undergo a purging process of eight to twelve days to clean their digestive tracts, after which slime is removed through repeated washes with salt and the snails are heated in salted water until they emerge from their shells before final cooking with garlic butter, stock or wine. Once considered poverty food, snails gained delicacy status through haute cuisine, and in French tradition they are served with specialized tongs and forks in indented metal trays; heliciculture, snail farming, occurs mainly in Spain, France and Italy, the countries with the greatest culinary tradition around the snail.