I was delighted to see that the French diplomats at the consulate in Edinburgh celebrated Bastille Day with snails from my family's home island of Barra in the Scottish Hebrides, seat of the Clan McNeil of which my mother was a proud daughter.
Regarded on the island as something of a pest, the snails are collected from the machair, the coastal moss and heather which endows the snails with a taste that French gourmets appreciate, much as it gives the malt whiskies of the islands their inimitable smoky and peaty flavor.
Regarded on the island as something of a pest, the snails are collected from the machair, the coastal moss and heather which endows the snails with a taste that French gourmets appreciate, much as it gives the malt whiskies of the islands their inimitable smoky and peaty flavor.