Bigorneaux is best in Brest

I know I've blogged about Bigorneaux before. Periwinkles (their English name) would probably gross most people out. But if you've got a strong stomach and like things such as escargot or oysters, you might find them quite tasty.

A couple people in my pastry lab are from Bretagne (Brittany). I told my sous-chef that I was headed to Brest for the weekend. He asked what I was going to do there, and I told him I was going to go fishing for Bigorneaux. "Bigorneaux?" he said, "well they just look like boogers."

So after a long day of work, I hopped on the TGV train out to Brest, which is on the West tip of Bretagne. The train ride is about 4.5 hours long passing through Rennes and a few smaller cities. The next day, I went Bigorneaux hunting. True, snails don't move that quickly, but its hard to find them hidden under seaweed, or hiding in the crevice of a rock next to a hermit crab. There's another type of snail that looks very similar, but supposedly is inedible.

Being on the coast, Brest is a great spot for those looking for fresh seafood. Our meals included langoustine, fresh fish, oysters, bigorneaux, and clams. I didn't know you could eat clams raw, but they have the same flavor as cooked clams.

A lot of the buildings in Brest are relatively new, since most of the city was destroyed during WWII. There are still naval shipyards, though the port is now primarily full of private boats. The weekend was full of seafood (more than I'm used to), and some pretty sights.