Escargot!

Whoever said we can’t eat fancily in Mozambique? I went to visit some friends several hours south, near the coast, and they introduced me to amejua, the local word for these little curly snails. 

Escargot, Moz-style! And they’re cheap – fifty cents for a big ole pile of ‘em!

To prepare:

First, boil your pot of snails.

Then, use a large pricker from a nearby pricker bush to pull out the boingy bodies. Don’t pull them out all the way to the end, or you’ll get their intestines full of their digested last meal.

Next, cook with tomatoes and onions, and eat with—no, not cornmeal mush patties— cassava mush patties! Yes, there are different types of mush patties! Cassava mush patties are much heavier – basically like wheat flour and water. Mapira mush patties are lighter and smoother than cornmeal mush patties. I ate half a cassava mush patty and couldn’t eat the other half…the only thing I’ve eaten in Mozambique and haven’t liked. The only thing I ate in Mexico and didn’t like was huitlacoche, a black pasty smear on your plate, made from corn fungus.

Amejua: Fun for the whole family!

Both Mexico and Mozambique have helped me fatten up my gastronomical comfort zone. And bodily blubber.