Posted by Dave Thewlis on November 05, 2004 at 14:55:26 from 24.254.88.112 user dthewlis.
In Reply to: Winkles posted by Ed Kiser on November 04, 2004 at 19:34:52:
And slightly familiar to even Americans who have ever heard the refrain "Cockles, and Winkles, alive, alive-o!"
Actually they're quite tasty.
And yes, "Escargot" are indeed snails -- in fact the same snail that is now a common garden pest in California (at least). Native California snails, now rather uncommon, look quite different.
About 155 years ago apparently somebody during the Gold Rush imported French escargot with the notion that they would be handy foodstuff. Sometime after that they escaped -- and after their jailbreak, spread north, east, and south at the rate of a few miles a year (extreme speed for snails, after all). You can eat them but should put them on a diet of corn meal long enough to purge out everything in their systems.