Escargot . . . . home-made

  When we were living in California, we spent time with a French graduate student.  One day, he noticed quite a few snails (about an inch wide - 2.5 cm) had gathered on the outside walls of our apartment complex.  He told us that this kind could be eaten.  This is what he said to do:  get a shoe box or similar small box with a lid.  Poke holes to vent the lid and put cornmeal in the box, about an inch deep.  Go out in the morning and pick up a good handful of the snails and put them in the box.  They would eat the cornmeal and eliminate the traces of what they ate in "the wild."  That evening, you could steam them, crack away the shells, and eat them.  "Really tasty," Jean said, "with a little garlic butter."  You discard the corn meal afterward, obviously.  Of course, one of the guys in our group had to try it.  When I asked him how they tasted, he replied, "Not bad - if you like concentrated essence of corn meal."