The joy of escargot. (don’t eat the thingy)

By Kitty Lapin Agile on October 31, 2012 • ( 1 )

When my family lived in Brussels, we especially enjoyed the Christmas holiday season. One thing that showed up only during the winter months were the small escargot carts. People would line up to buy a small bowl of escargot “soup”. It was escargot in a bowl of warm water, not drenched in butter and garlic, but simply served with nothing extra. It was also very inexpensive, less than 2 Euros.

People wait in line for escargot.
This is before I had totally converted the girls to
the local culture.

Later on the children and I learned to appreciate the cart escargot, but our first taste was an experience I felt we needed to have filmed. In the video, see how people stop and line up. Even the children are “oh wow, it’s hot escargot soup! Let’s get some!” The one little boy is as happy as if he were getting ice cream.

We also loved to get freshly made waffles, served warm with powdered sugar and dark chocolate syrup. That was the treat the girls usually were allowed after shopping. As time went on, they were taken under the spell of the escargot cart, available only during winter!

Please note, we also learned not to eat the bitter part that sometimes was accidentally left on…

We lived in the French speaking part of Brussels
Yes they girls actually would go out in berets!
(people do wear them!) Conversion complete,
including a love for escargot soup!