This village woman from Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) shows off the preparation of an escargot dish, a la Julia Child. She is chopping the snails with a machete, in a wooden platter. From Grains of Golden Sand:"The Congolese people are a diverse group of many tribes, clans, and families. Each district has distinctive art, legends, dance, dialect, housing construction techniques, hunting traditions, fishing styles, and eating patterns. What people traditionally eat and cannot eat is a part of their culture. Forest game animals have individual significance: some foods are permitted; some are rejected; others are favored; several are magical; and a few are only for men.
"I once spent a few days in a remote village just north of the Zaire River, 50 miles west of Lisala. It was March, which happened to be snail season. All other activities were put on hold while villagers frantically harvested the giant forest snail. The people had laboriously hauled water into the now seasonally dry wetlands and made a kind of mud bait, which was spread about to attract the snails. Men, women, and children collected the six inch long gastropods and hauled them by the thousands back to the village. Live snails were packed and sold to passing river traffic for resale in the capital, and many were consumed on the spot. I was treated to a meal of forest escargot---cleaned with citrus juice, minced fine, and fried in palm oil with onion, hot red peppers and lots of garlic. Finger-lickin’ good!"
Photo by D. Messinger
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