Periwinkle

The common periwinkle, also called a winkle, is a species of small sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc with a dark, sometimes banded shell that is broadly ovate, thick and sharply pointed, measuring thirty to fifty two millimeters in shell height. Native to the rocky shores of the northeastern Atlantic, it was introduced to North America in the mid-nineteenth century and is now abundant from New Jersey north to Newfoundland. Periwinkles have been eaten since at least 7500 BCE in Scotland, where over two thousand tonnes are still exported annually, and the meat, high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids and low in fat, is commonly sold boiled in paper bags near beaches in Ireland and Scotland and considered a delicacy in African and Asian cuisines.