High/Low
Snail's Pace
A (very) slow food classic gets a makeover By Charles Oberdorf
AMUSE-BOUCHE, Ravioli maître d'hôtel à l'escargot, $15 / L'ESCARGOT BISTRO, Escargots, $8
Image credit: Angus Fergusson
Once a bistro cliché banned by cuisines nouvelle, minceur and their successors for their excess of butter, escargots have begun creeping back into vogue on high-end menus of late. And at some places, they never went away. In a cozy room named L’Escargot Bistro (3185 Yonge St., 416-485-8338), a half-dozen of them all but swim in hot garlic butter ($8), in those purpose-built crocks with handle and dimpled top, and with lots of sliced baguette on the side. Firm and nutty, with a squishy crunch more common to Chinese dishes, these searing molluscs will kindle fond memories for anyone whose first encounter with the gastropod involved a clamp for holding shells.
At Amuse-Bouche (96 Tecumseth St., 416-913-5830), a more ambitious sluggish starter, called ravioli maître d’hôtel à l’escargot ($15), helps snails come out of their shells. The dish sees diced escargots and mushroom sautéed with shallots and house-cured bacon, then stuffed into pockets of pasta made with the maître’s butter, garlic and parsley; veal stock and red wine make the syrupy sauce. Three ravioli and three sautéed pearl onions nest on a bed of truffled celeriac purée, garnished with a shingle of braised pork belly. Welcome to the fast lane.
TEST Originally published March 2007
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