Don’t Like ‘Fast’ Food? Try Bebouche, or Moroccan Snails
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- 21 Feb 2023
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The grounding flavor of bebouche is a comforting, all-enveloping spiciness that sits heavily on the tongue.
Walking through a Moroccan medina (old city), it’s hard to miss the stands piled with steaming bowls of brown and white shells. Bebouche, also called Ghlal, is a Moroccan cuisine that offers a taste of escargots outside the formal atmosphere of French restaurants but instead with the cheap price and adventurous spirit of street food.
In the Rabat medina, I bought a bowl of bebouche alongside a cup of the broth for 10 MAD ($1). The herbal seasoning varies, but common ingredients include tea leaves, thyme, aniseed, licorice root, Arabic gum, and pepper.
Close-up of a snail in Bebouche
Consider this: Chilled to the bone from exploring the rainy woods, you stumbled into your cozy cabin and sprawled in front of your crackling fireplace, draping a warm blanket around yourself. That grounded feeling is the flavor of bebouche, a comforting, all-enveloping spiciness that sits heavily on the tongue.
A toothpick is the common tool for getting the snail out of its shell. It’s a satisfying process to watch the body stretch out until — snap! — it coils around the toothpick, tempting you to bite.
Extracting snails with a toothpick
I happened to be recovering from a mild cold when I tried bebouche. With each sip of the broth, the earthy spices chased away the lingering stuffiness in my nose. Indeed, bebouche is said to alleviate cold symptoms, making it especially popular during the winter.
Preparing bebouche is not always a pleasant process, however. My Moroccan friend once told me that after the snails are picked from the wild, “chefs must make them fast.” My first interpretation is that the cooking process must be quick.
When my friend said that I misunderstood, my mind wandered to the movie “Turbo” about a lightning-fast racing snail and wondered if the chefs must make them fast, as in give them speed. Laughing, my friend finally explained that the chefs must make the snails go without food or water for a few months to clear out the poisonous contents of their stomachs. The empty-stomached snails are then cooked alive to an unpleasant death.
It’s okay to feel squeamish about this, but if the preparation doesn’t put you off, then consider yourself lucky, for bebouche is truly a gastronomical delight and a Moroccan dish you must try.
One by one, empty shells pile up beside my bowl until it sits empty except for the last dregs of broth. I drained it in one satisfying gulp. Read More…
