Re: CHAT gasteropodophagy (was: Att. Ray -- of snails and slugs)

At 12:35 am -0400 10/6/01, John Cowan wrote:
>Raymond Brown scripsit:
>
>> So cochliophagy in the US doesn't seem just confined to where I encountered
>> it in Maine.
>
>Oh, it isn't.  I was simply surprised to hear of the word "snails" on the
>menu,
>as I would be surprised to see "squid" (rather than "calamari"), "pig"
>(rather than "pork"), etc.
Ah, I see - sorry, misunderstood you.

But, yes, good plain English 'Snails' is certainly what it said on the menu.

Here 'squid' is quite likely to be 'squid'.  But I guess pig-flesh is
'pork' everywhere in anglophonia, even tho some restaurants will write it à
la française _porc_.
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At 12:54 am -0400 10/6/01, John Cowan wrote:
>Roger Mills scripsit:
>
>> Offhand, I should think slugs, properly purged and prepared, could be just
>> as palatable, albeit much more of a mouthful.
>
>Very true, although eating them raw would be very dangerous: gastropods
>(American spelling) carry various nasty viruses.
Dictionaries here give both _gasteropod_ and _gastropod_.

Ancient Greek doesn't help either since _gaste:r_ (belly), has accusative
_gastera_ and genitive _gastros_; and compounds are found with gastero- and
gastro- so I guess it's just a matter of preference.

>> (JOOC, are they Kosher?)
>
>How could they be?
About as kosher as pork-sausages   ;)

>They are creeping things.
Indeed - cf. Leviticus 11:41, 42.
"Any small beast that crawls on the ground is detestable; you must not eat
it.  Anything that moves on its belly, anything on four legs or more - in
short all small beasts that crawl on the ground - you must not these
because they are detestable."

Snails & slugs are certainly small beasts that creep on the ground (and up
plants, walls etc) and as gast(e)ropod means "belly-foot" these creatures
quite clearly move on their bellies - so altogether non-kosher.

Ray.



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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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