Why Not Eat The Snails

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Food & Drink

Wednesday, 13 April 2011 02:31

By George Skye Williams

In 2006, I was in Ghana, West Africa. I arrived without a visa and was arrested as I got off British Airways. Once I start talking like an Antiguan and insisted that it is absurd that a Black man would need a visa to come to an African country, they became very friendly.

I was released into the custody of the Anglican Bishop. As I made friends, I was introduced to their culture and foods.

While at the Asafu Market in Kumasi, I saw the African snails for sale for food, and my friend said she would cook some for me.

We bought a heap from a lady in the market and took them home to make a stew. They used palm oil and onions and peppers and tomatoes, then prepared another dish called fufu that has a fungee consistency, with okras on the side.

These snails are off the chain. They taste like whelks. There are over 50,000 species of snails ranging from a 10th of an inch to up to 2 feet and ever larger. I discovered the snail in Antigua in 2007 and was very surprised. The picture below is in Antigua at a friend’s apartment not too far from the John I race track.

In order to eradicate the snail, we must study it, not just quarantine it. We must know the birth cycle or the time it takes for the animal to mature and reproduce and the food it eats. I know we are going about this all wrong, since it is spreading, and monitoring and movement restrictions will not stop reproduction, since this is illogical.

Snails have been on the planet maybe before dinosaurs, over 400 million years. In their natural habitat, land snails eat mushrooms, fruit, leaves and any other kind of vegetation they can find. Mostly, snails eat living plants, but also decaying ones.

Other forms of food include plant bark, flowers, and algae. In order to get a nutritional supply of calcium for their shells, snail food includes limestone, and they also eat chalk from rocks.

Snails have been used as food throughout the world for centuries, and edible varieties are often even in dwellings. Their distribution in the United States was due to accidental introduction, or intentionally by those of European descent who use them for
food. Italian-Americans in San Francisco, for many years, have enjoyed local snails.

Snails belong to the same class a sea snail, the specialty food found in the warm Caribbean waters known as conch. They can be prepared as a tasty food, low in calories, about 90 calories per 100 grams of meat, high in protein (12 to 16 percent), and rich in minerals.

In Australia, milking snails for anti-cancer drugs is being researched. The Cone snail is being researched for the production of new painkillers. The new synthetic drug Prialt is now at an advanced stage of clinical trials, effective at low doses, and does not cause side effects of addiction or tolerance.

Snails are medicine in Ifa. African snail medicine is called Omiero, which in West Africa is used to describe the herbal mixture that traditional Yoruba call ewe.

Snail water is a central component of Omiero for head washing. Omiero is used to clean open wounds, and it is mixed with gin for head cleanings. Omiero is ingested as medicine and also used in religious practices.

After the young lady finished cooking the snails we purchased from the market, we sat down to eat. One bite and I could not stop. “Make you wanna smack your mama good.” It was tasty.

If we want to get rid of the snail, fine, do it right. They must be killed, not just quarantined. However, with new doctors coming home and potential agricultural exports, this could be like manna from heaven.

NUFF LOVE & RESPECT - Skyewill

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