Part of my French heritage on my mother's side, means that I grew up regularly eating terrestrial gastropod molluscs, specifically escargot, snails. Love 'em.
When I moved to Liuzhou, I didn’t know about the city’s deep affinity to snails. But was delighted to find out. The city’s signature dish, Luosifen is snail flavoured noodles. But I’ve never see terrestrial snails here. The rice noodle dish is made with aquatic snails, Margarya melanioides, a type in the family Viviparidae, the river snails. These are known as 螺蛳 (luó sī), hence 螺蛳粉 (luó sī fěn). They are widely consumed, not only as an ingredient in luosifen but several other dishes. The intact snails and their de-shelled meat are both sold in supermarkets.
螺蛳
螺蛳肉 - luosi meat
Another snail we see is Oncomelania hupensis guangxiensis, a species of very small tropical freshwater snail, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family, Pomatiopsidae. These are a local subspecies in a family native to east Asia.
These are completely overshadowed by 螺蛳 (luó sī) and are rarely seen; in fact when they are, they are always mislabelled – They are correctly 钉螺 (dīng luó), literally ‘nail snails’, due to their pointed nature. They are also prone to the schistosomiasis blood fluke parasite, and the paragonimus lung fluke parasites. The Chinese name for snail fever (bilharzia or schistosomiasis), disease caused by schistosome parasitic flatworm is 罗汉 病 (luó hàn bìng), literally ‘arhat sickness’, attributable to the Buddhist monks who fed on them. I avoid them. Parasite infested monks and snails!
Then we have sea snails (海螺 - hǎi luó). Again, there are multiple species. I have no idea which these are. Usually only found in seafood restaurants and seldom in supermarkets or wet markets. It’s actually easier to buy the empty shells than the meaty ones. Those are used in the decorative arts.
Sea Snails
🐌