Weird looking little suckers aren't they!
Before the recent trip to Spain, I was doing some research on Chez Pim and came across an image of these in one of her posts. They instantly went on my must-do food list, along side looking at a broccoli romanesco, eating some northern waters fish (posts to come) and eating as much unpasteurised cheese as possible (hey look, Australian Government, I'm still alive...!)
Any way... After seeing the percebes at the Barcelona food market, La Boqueria and a few other Spanish markets that I dragged PDC through, I knew I had to find them on a menu sometime before we left the country.
Percebes are a Spanish delicacy, also known as a gooseneck barnacle (food nerd, I know!), they grow on rocks on the north-western Spanish coast, and apparently are quite dangerous to harvest.
Up close the percebes are quite scary looking, perhaps like a small clawed leg from a strange bird, with a hard shell at one end and a leathery tube that attaches to the rock.
They are typically steamed or flash boiled (I read a beautiful story that locally the women cook them in boiling water for as long as it takes to say the Lords Prayer).

The correct way to eat them is to squeeze the leather tube right near the shell and then twist, and suck the flesh out. We didn't know this at the time and because we couldn't ask our intimidating waitress, there was no way to find out how to eat them once they were in front of us. So I just dived in, knife in hand and prised open the shell like a oyster and then just torn it apart to get to what I assumed must be flesh of some kind inside. After a few I had developed a technique to suck them out once breaking open the shell.
Since I had insisted on ordering them (at 110€ a kilo! -about $200AUD) I guess PDC decided to sit back and watch me go first with the breaking open and eating. Slightly warm from being cooked, the flesh looks like a soft mushroom with a strange filament thing on top. The taste was quite intriguing, some what like a fresh briny oyster with the texture of a clam or mussel. The overriding memory is of a delicate fresh sea taste and trying not to get the squirty juices all over me.

We shared 300g of these over a bottle of Veuve Clicquot as an entree and found them messingly interesting and perfect with the champagne, but 300g was definately plenty. A fun food adventure that I look forward to eating again next time I'm in that part of the world.
Jack

Labels: chez pim, food, food nerd, markets, Percebes, Spain