lost in Portugal: Caracois, caracois

OK, we arrived in Lisbon. It was kind of cold and rainy and I was STARVING! Big shock there I'm sure.

So Nick and I went wandering around our hotel to see what we could find to eat. We wandered into this tiny little storefront and ordered a couple of sandwiches. I happened to see two women behind us eating what looked like a plate of teeny, tiny escargot. So when the server came over I said "I'd like a small plate of those, please."

He looked at me, said "Caracois?"

And I said, yes, what those girls are having. With smile he returned about 5 minutes later with a steaming, garlicky pile of tiny little snails, complete with tiny, little, smiling snail heads that had antennae.

Now I'm a pretty adventurous eater, but for just a moment even I paused. But after a stern, internal pep talk, I dug in with my toothpick while Nick looked on rather horrified. Until he tried them. And boy were they tasty. As long as you can get over the little heads, these suckers are really, really good. Nick only made it through four, but I devoured a good plateful almost before I was full.

Although not for the squeamish, I highly recommend them if you happen to be in Portugal and they're available.