What do you call that in your country?

When you're from 🐚🐌🌴🌾 countries a.k.a south east asia, this type of snail is pretty common to find. The first time I found this snail again after many years was when I traveled to Laos.

I found the snails sold at the food vendors. I was really surprised because in my place, that type of snails is already difficult to find and almost nobody is selling it unless a few regions that are known for its snails delicacy. People in laos call them Om Hoy and they are cooking with with soupy based with grated coconut just like how it was almost made where I am from. To be able to reconnect with my childhood from far away was special and nostalgic.

For most indonesian, not all of them eat this type of snails. Some of them even dislike it and consider it unappetizing. It's also not easy to find these days considering massive on-going construction and the gradual disappearance of farmlands. In Indonesia there are some variant names depending where they're from but around here, we call them Kreco.

Out of the blue about a few weeks ago, I was with my mom at the wet market. There was this one fish vendor who was selling the snails in a plastic bag. For a plastic bag, it was around $0.43 and I was just ecstatic to get the bag.

Coconut Soup Base & how to eat the snails

I personally don't know the full recipe because my mom was the one who cooked it. However, I was the one who cleaned the snails. So basically before being able to consume this snail, you have to wash the snails multiple times. By multiple I mean almost 10 times until the water is clear and clean.

Then, you have to crush the end part of the snails to create an opening so the spices and herbs can seep into the insides during the cook and also, essentially cleaning the dirty part of the snails. The fastest way doing that is using pliers.After everything is cleaned and the back part is gone, wash twice and then boil for almost 30 minutes.

This delicacy needs a patience to make and it's why not everyone sells this. Even if they do, they cost almost $1 for just a small bowl of it.

How to eat

The fun part is slurping the snails but also eating it with toothpick. The empty shells would look like this below. I typically use another bowl for the empty shells.

The snails taste chewy and also savory. The soup base that my mom makes was definitely the best. As you can also see above, there are grated coconut around.

Is this safe to eat? well yes but there are some precautions that you need to have like having to clean them thoroughly. Throughout my life I have never been sick eating this. Though I can't say the same with others but so far, I never have any problems and this remains delicacy that I enjoy eating whenever I can find them.

Would you try eating this snails?