The other white truffle: snails

White truffles and black truffles are a delicacy for most people in the world. But there is another delicacy whose existence has been ignored as the new wave of chefdom occurs. Snails.

Considered a delicacy in France, Africa, and other countries, this slithery, slow moving creature is abundant in supermarkets everywhere from northern Africa to countries all along the Mediterranean.

A popular dish for almost 6,000 years, there are now three main types of snails that are farmed and captured for consumption. Though only these three are eaten, the preparations from country to country vary. The most popular way to prepare the "escargot" is to boil them for 4 minutes, drain them and then serve them in a sauce of butter, shallots, parsley, and sometimes white wine, and lemon; this is the French preparation method. Other countries like Portugal prepare them as the main ingredient in a stew while those from Greece fry them and serve with lemon.

Whichever way you prepare them make sure you boil them before cooking. If not, you may give yourself a rare form of meningitis.

And with Portugal consuming about 4,000 tones of snails each year it looks like the U.S. has a lot of catching up to do.