What's for appetizer tonight? Escargots! Are you not kidding me?

So, I finally had the chance to try out this exotic dish at Jack's Place for my grandmother's birthday dinner. To be honest, I ordered this because I'm not the one paying, my parents are! So heck it- Half a dozen of snails please!

FYI, they ain't cheap at all. The ones at Jack's Place costs $9.50++ for half a dozen.

The dish basically came with two important tools (of torture, nevermind, they are dead anyway) that will greatly assist you in this journey of eating this pesky land snails - Snail tongs (for holding the shells) and snail forks (for extracting the meat).

Finally, it came - six shells filled with nasty black stuff in each hole. Grabbing and holding one shell using the tongs, having doubts whether they taste like rubber or dirt, I gave them a sniff. Ahh, garlic and herbs. Empowering smell. Jeez man, guess I have to put it in my mouth. So using the snail fork, I carefully poked it and try to extract the meat out, fearing that the fragile mollusc would tear, resulting the meat to squirt and splurt. I proceed this step with extreme caution, slow, steady, twisting a little here and there, and out it came.

Without thinking I placed it in my mouth, gave it a little chew, it doesn't taste as bad. My father was probably exaggerating when he said that it tasted like junk. It's chewy, most people said it taste like chicken, actually it's the "bite" that feels like chicken. You know, the feeling when your teeth interact with your food. The after-taste is strong though, I would described it as mushrooms soaked in herb-sauce for a century. To be honest, the taste is still in my mouth, as I typed this - THIS, approximately after 5 hours. (Gotta use Listerine later.)

I would like to try this dish again, perhaps at other outlets. I heard "My Secret Garden" near Bugis serve good escargots.

P.S. Sorry, if this post sounds like a big fuss eating escargots, it's my first-try and just wanna share my delightful experience.