Snails, Lies and Videotape

Breakfast Radishes

Many years ago- for a very brief time- I lived in the [San Joaquin Valley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Joaquin_Valley), near the foothills, among thousands of acres of peaches and plums. We had all sorts of flora and fauna there, not the least terrifying of which were black widow spiders. ”Oh, just don’t bother them,” my ex told me confidently, as if I were about to cover my wrists with pig’s blood and run into the webs.

Well, I killed a pretty sizable spider *a casa* the other day, not a black widow, but gray, hairy and with discernable incisors.

So, I guess what I’m saying is, we have spiders.

More interestingly from a gastronomic standpoint, though, we also have snails. Neither I nor my neighbor use any sort of chemicals in our gardens, so they’re presumably safe to eat. I even cleaned fresh snails once, a million years ago. You put them in a bowl and cover them with cornmeal so they purge whatever they’ve got in them, and after a while you boil them, then drag them out of the shells with a pin. I’m sure there’s more to it than I remember, but i’ll find that out.

On the flight here (we’re broadcasting from the East Coast today), there was one of those Jet Blue NY Times Presents things, which sometimes are interesting and sometimes a total bust. On this trip, it was a fascinating panel discussion between [Dan Barber](http://www.stonebarnscenter.org/sb_about/staff.aspx?ContentID=12), Rick Schneider- CEO of SYSCO, [Nina Planck](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Planck) and someone else who has slipped my mind; moderated by former NY Times food critic [Amanda Hesser](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Hesser) (who, regardless of how I may feel about her, did an ok job).

I’ve been thinking about doing a podcast. Any thoughts?