It was back in the 90s. I was taking our snail supplier from the Burgundy region out for dinner.
I chose a nice French restaurant across from the Bonsecours Market in Old Montreal.
We ordered a dozen Escargots De Bourgogne for starters.
I then launched into my first question of the evening:
'"Why were you 'short shipping' our snails?"
“Rain,” was his one word in answer.
“Too much rain In Turkey”
“But," I interjected, " I thought snails love rain.”
“They do love rain , but the rain causes the grass to grow too quickly,
and the pickers cant find the snails”.
My follow up question; "I thought the snails come from Burgundy?"
“They are packed in Burgundy, but the snails come to us in bulk from Turkey”
At this point our Escargots de Bourgogne were delivered to the table.
My guest was not happy. He called over the waiter.
“What kind of Escargots are these? Please go to the kitchen and ask the chef for the can”
When the waiter returned with the can, clearly marked, Product of China, my guest went livid.
"In France this is ‘Hors de la Loi’ – against the law. You can not call Chinese snails
'Escargots de Bourgogne'”
Perhaps it was the wine, but my guest was overcome with a determined frenzy:
“I am going to go out on the street and find a 'Gendarme' and have the chef arrested!”
It took a lot of arm twisting on my part to convince him that he was not in France,
and that going out and stopping a police car was not going to have a very happy ending!
