Whoever does not know about this custom and arrives, for example, in Seville, may be surprised. The city’s bars are full of people these days, but there is one tapa that almost everyone agrees on: snails. Or of goats.
It is also common to come across people carrying a bag in their hand. “Give me a tub to take away.” And for home. To eat snails or taste some whitecaps that always end up dipping bread in their delicious sauce -different from that of their little ‘brothers’-.
The I Caracol Fair, Caracolia, was born in the Andalusian capital this weekend, on June 9 and 10 on the Paseo de Colón, with the participation of thirteen of the most renowned establishments in this field of snails and groupers: Bar Tribuna, Casa Diego, El Cateto, La Mina, La Cochera del Tranvía, Bar Timonel, Yumai, El Picadero and El Pica, in Seville, as well as Maino Lebrija and Taberna El Miguelete (Lebrija), El Rancho de Gines (Gines) and Bar Morillo (Utrera).
Each of the stands, lined up, has a QR code so that visitors can vote for their favorite, a score that will be added to that of a professional jury. Admission costs 3 euros with a drink and the idea is for the visitor to try as many snails and groupers as possible. The first, with the bowl at 3 euros; the second, at 4 euros. In addition, an area for drinks with beer at 2 euros and space with tables to eat them at ease. And a show cooking by Álvaro Peregil.
There are those who prefer the snails more or less spicy, and those who reserve the broth to drink it at the end, after having finished the tapa. “I like them spicy. Ask my wife, she brings them very tasty,” jokes Julio Moreno, president of the Seville Academy of Gastronomy and Tourism, organizer together with the Association of Hoteliers of Seville and Province. “There are not two diners equal, I never found unanimity”.
From the Bar Tribuna, in Triana, they explain to LOC the process for making a good snail tapa. “The most important thing is to have a good product and wash it very well. They are cooked in large pots. Spices are added to make the broth and it foams very well.” In those large pots full of snails, you can see a cloth bag and a mesh.
“Spices go into the fabric. In any herbalist’s you can find what is called ‘gathered spices for snails'”. And in the mesh, the vegetables that also give flavor to the broth: tomato, leek, celery, onion, mint, garlic… “In addition to the fact that the snail is of quality and is good, the flavor of the broth is paramount, which it is achieved with that combination of spices and vegetables, and it is what gives it the touch. If the broth does not have flavor, it does not have that touch of pique, nor the right balance…”. Then boil, let stand and serve piping hot.
They assure in the Bar Tribuna that “many people look for the spicy broth. But it cannot be excessively, because children or people who cannot take pique also eat snails. The secret is to find the balance.”
The tradition of eating snails and sea bass comes from ancient times. According to the biologist José Ramón Arrébola, who has been studying these animals for more than 30 years, “there is paleontological data from thousands of years ago in which it is already seen that people ate snails.” There are three types: the boy (the normal one), the whitecaps and the burgajos (larger). “These last ones are not very popular in Seville, but they are in Huelva, Granada or Jaén. And in Madrid, Catalonia, Aragon, the Basque Country, Navarra or France. In Valencia, for example, they eat it with rice, sometimes they even add it to paella , as if they were clams”.
Córdoba, Seville, Cádiz and Jaén “are the most powerful. The people from Córdoba start the season earlier. The Sevillians may be the most gourmets. Or even more so the people from Cádiz, perhaps the most demanding when assessing the qualities of the animal.”
The snails have to be fresh and well cooked. You have to clean them well and remove the grit, after having caught them at the right time. “About March or April, the snail does not want to be active, because the heat makes it lose water, moisture. With strong heat, the snail gets inside the shell and lasts all summer, but before it purges itself, that is, it cleans itself. If it is caught before its time, it will be dirty, because it has not had time to clean itself.”
Therefore, the season to eat them is not very long, but it is intense. More or less, from mid-May to, at the latest, the end of July. “There comes a time when they come with worms. Flies and other insects put the larva in the snail, apart from the fact that they no longer have the same quality.”
Every year “about 12,000 tons of snails are imported from Morocco alone, of which about 9,000 remain in Andalusia. In addition to those from nurseries. And it is that they are no longer caught in the field as in the past.” The numbers speak for themselves.
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