We Ate Snails in Córdoba

Sure, we found some other good food to eat in Córdoba but our big Cultural Experience™ was eating snails. A lot of them. It’s apparently what all the cool kids do during the springtime, too. But I guess that I should share with you all how we got there.

Hi, I’m Andrew again and it’s good to be back. The story begins in anticipation of our somewhat hasty departure from Valencia’s Estació Nord. We woke up early, packed our bags, and after bidding adieu to our friends Anna Kate and Zander, Emma and I caught the bus to the train station.

Instead of taking the AVE, Spain’s high-speed train, and going back through Madrid, we’d opted to buy tickets for the more direct Torre del Oro line. Yes, it was a slower journey, but during the six and a half hour saga we cut across a part of the Spanish countryside that I’d previously never seen: we passed through Albacete, the largest city in Castilla-La Mancha; we saw (replicas of) the windmills from Don Quijote in Alcázar de San Juan; and, most importantly, Emma took a much needed nap.

And just like that, we were in Córdoba! Unfortunately, we hadn’t had time to eat before we got on the train, and we were ravenous by our 6:30 PM arrival. Luckily, there were plenty of open restaurants and we were pleasantly surprised with what we found. We recommend Bodega Guzmán for traditional comidas cordobesas, such as the pickled eggplant and grilled red peppers with tuna in the photo on the left. Another regional speciality is the oxtail stew, on the right, which we ordered at Taberna Góngora. And finally, also at Taberna Góngora, we ordered breaded eggplant with molasses (in the middle) for an unexpectedly sweet treat.

And here’s the main attraction: caracoles! Emma had watched a YouTube video by a creator named James Blick (and then later I did, too) about how people from Córdoba eat snails during every springtime “from February to June,” as his wife Yoly says. James is a New Zealander who founded a food tour company in Spain called Devour Tours. Even though I spent a year in Spain, I don’t have all of the answers when it comes to finding good food and James’ videos on YouTube have served as a tremendous guide during the past month.

Anywho, James recommended in his most recent video two “flavors” of snails: the small ones on the left are called chicos and are cooked in a light broth of mint and cumin (yes, it makes for an interesting flavor profile). The larger ones on the right are called gordos and are cooked in a thicker tomato sauce that at first I really enjoyed. Then I found bits and pieces of shell in the sauce and I hit my wall.

No joke, we were even given a big red plastic bucket to throw the shells into once we’d ripped the snails from them. Here I am before we dug in (notice my enthusiastic smile).

While we were in Córdoba, we had to visit the city’s most notable monument: the Mezquita-Catedral. First a mosque built in the 8^th century and further expanded in the 9^th and 10^th centuries, the building at its peak held a maximum of around 30,000 worshippers at any given time. The complex is perhaps most well-known for its candy-cane arches of red and white on top of recycled Roman and Visigothic columns. During the Reconquista in the 14^th century, however, the mosque was converted (twice!) into a cathedral and I’ve heard that the only reason that we still have those candy-cane arches is because the Catholics were so poor as a result of their war that they couldn’t afford to tear it down and build something else from scratch.

Here are two more interior shots—each representing one of the religions that had used the building as a center for worship—and a photo of the two of us across the courtyard from bell tower, which was built around the remains of the mosque’s minaret.

Even as our time in Córdoba came to a close, we still made a point to seek out yummy and extraordinary food. After touring the Mezquita-Catedral, we stopped at a casual Middle Eastern restaurant called Pasillo Oriental and enjoyed chicken shawarma, kibbe (a breaded and fried beef meatball), and a heap of hummus. And just before we set out from Córdoba to board our train to Sevilla, we had to go to Bar Santos, a no-frills tapas bar that’s known for making the largest tortillas in all of Spain!

Lastly, the time had come to leave. We wandered north through the small streets of the old city until they just sort of faded into the grid of a more modern town on our way back to the train station. And oh, what’s this? Is that me in a new pair of jeans that doesn’t have a massive hole in the crotch? Yep, you bet! Emma and I are both very relieved that that chapter has finally come to a close.

We’ll be back soon (very soon) with another update!

With recognition for expedition,

A