Although we are approaching the dry season gradually, it doesn't look like it , because the rain has been falling non-stop since last week and now it is the beginning of a new week and it has commenced with heavy rainfall again. Due to the rainfall, snails always sprout in the bushes and people go to pick them up. We also got into the bush and picked some snails which we used for preparing our snail soup.
There are different kinds of snails though and different ways to pick them. Over here we have the big snail, small snail, water snail and periwinkle snails. The water snail and periwinkle snails are found at the banks of rivers, those ones are sea foods and are also delicious. The big and small snails are found in bushes especially during the rainy seasons. The snails we used in preparing our soup are the small snails found in the bushes. These snails come out mostly at night and are very many.
We picked lots of snails and used them to prepare soup. Yummy, this soup was made with a combination of different ingredients. The ingredients are as follows; grinded melon, atama leaf, okro, palm oil, pepper, crayfish, dried fish, onions, seasoning cubes, salt, water and then snails. Oh, the soup tasted so delicious when I brought it down from the fire. I scooped some and shared them with my neighbor who lives close to me and she was so excited.
I ate mine with a big lump of garri. Just in case you may not know what garri is, garri as popularly called over here is made from cassava flakes. We boil some water and add the flakes into the hot water, then we turn it using a spatula and it becomes strong for moulding. It can be combined with any soup of choice. It is cut in tiny balls, soaked into the soup and swallowed.
We also have something called fufu, that one is also made out of cassava but takes a different procedure to make and it is also consumed the same way garri is consumed with soup. Some people call garri or fufu (eba). While some just call it garri or fufu.
We ate our own very hot and spicy. One can easily see the snails floating on top of the soup. It is such a yummy sight to behold. Some may wonder how the snails are eaten, whether it is chewed with the shells. The snails are being sucked out from their shells into the mouth. For easy removal of the snail flesh from its shell, a small hole is created at the bottom using the teeth and then it is easily sucked out from the head. The shell of this particular snail is not hard at all, unlike the periwinkle snails which are very hard. That one too is also sucked out but we use plier to cut the bottom out, wash and cook before sucking. This other snail is washed and cooked with the complete shell without cutting. You can only use your teeth to cut it before you suck the flesh out.
This is the food
Thanks for reading. Photo is mine and was taken with my Infinix smart 5 phone camera.