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From The Algarve June 2008

When I first saw this notice ‘ Ha Caracois’ outside a restaurant (it means ‘We have snails’, or ‘There are snails’) I thought it was a warning enforced by the Health and Safety police. If you choose to eat here you run the risk of small slimy things slithering over your bachalhau or javali (be patient, I’ll come to them in a minute), dropping into the pocket of the coat on the back of your chair, or even climbing up the leg of your trousers (sorry, Ladies, I’ll leave cleavage out of these wild imaginings).

But no, ‘Ha Caracois’ is a boast, a culinary come-on. Snails are a Portuguese delicacy.  After a rainfall  (and there’s been more than enough recently in the Algarve) the hedges and grasses along the country roads attract the locals with plastic bags, picking their evening meal. Street corners have men with buckets of snails for sale. And, in the larger towns, I’ll bet there are tricycles bearing the Portuguese equivalent of ‘Stop Me And Buy Some’

Anyway, that’s enough about snails. Bachalhau is codfish, and Javali is wild boar. I hope I’ve not told you this before, but the Portuguese discovered cod while they were sailing round the world in the 15th century and it has been the national dish ever since, with a different recipe for eating and preparation for each day of the year. Nearly all the bachalhau still comes from Newfoundland and thereabouts (think about Cape Cod just down the coast) and arrives here in the supermarkets dried, flat and in great slabs two to three feet long.

Javali, on the other hand. is never seen in shops, supermarkets, or butchers. They are sometimes seen at night in the remote hills, and every Thursday and Sunday hunters from town go off into the countryside in search of them, coming back at nightfall with a couple of pigeons but javaliless. Common belief is that the small country restaurants that serve Javali buy them directly from local and more experienced hunters.

Finally, on food. Two weeks ago, the first Indian restaurant in this part of the Algarve opened. It has been crowded every night since with Brits, Germans, Dutch, and even Portuguese. Not a snail in sight on the menu.