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Jonesin' for scungilli salad!
By MrZip on Mon, 08/05/2019 - 2:42pm
Anybody have a recommendation for scungilli (conch, often sliced thin and marinated) salad in the North End/downtown? My go-to place has gone-too. I'd also happy knowing of a local market that sells scungilli.
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Comments
u don't
hear this every day. buon appetito
Perhaps I am alone in my quest.
[sigh]
I've seen it on the menu at the original Daily Catch
in the North End from time to time. Last place I saw it on a menu was Teatro overlooking the Common on Tremont Street.
Snail Salad
I think what you are looking for is what people from Rhode Island call Snail Salad.
https://roadfood.com/dishes/snail-salad/
I've never developed a taste for it....but my in-laws think Venda makes some of the best snail salad around: https://vendaraviolistore.com/snail-salad/
Yes, the key distinction is that it's
a sea snail, not a land snail. Conchs and whelks and other sizes of sea snails are sold as scungilli. The bigger they are, the generally tougher they are, so need preparation that tenderizes them a bit, like long marination or slow braising, often paired with thin slicing. Usually if you get scungilli in New England, it's a locally-caught whelk, not the warm-water queen conch you see in South Florida and the Bahamas.
If you ever seen periwinkles on a menu, give those a try: a smaller sea snail that you have to dig out of the shell with a lobster pick. Really delicious and pretty tender after a short simmer in a white wine sauce or the like, nice with a dip like lemon aioli.
Thanks to all for the gastropoda gastronomy!!
I'll keep an eye on the Daily Catch, by there several times a week. Did not know of the welk/conch thing, I am now welk-curious. Def down with the periwinkles, used to be able to buy those super cheap, good eatin' as long as you're not in a hurry and not starving! As for the snail salad, can't wait to try. Buon appetito!
Periwinkles
I've never had an Italian preparation of periwinkles, but have had them several times at Chinese restaurants in Boston, served in the shell with black bean sauce. Rather than a lobster pick, the Chinese restaurants usually give you a dish full of toothpicks with which to...er...winkle them out. (Whence comes that turn of phrase.) As MrZip says, delicious and great fun as long as you're not either famished or in a hurry.
The big European consumers of periwinkles are
the French, Spaniards, Dutch, and Belgians. I had these beauties just this past weekend at an American seafood place in a French-seeming treatment, simmered in a white wine / garlic sauce with chives, served with a lemon aioli dip.