Turbo (Garden Snail)

Hmmm where shall I begin or more appropriately how should I begin? How would one go about discussing this topic? Well let’s begin with how it all started. Back in July 2013, the DreamWorks movie Turbo was released in Malaysia. It is about a motoring mollusc, or more commonly known as garden snail that breath, eat, live, sleep and dream of competing in the Indianapolis 500.

Needless to say we did not catch it in the cinemas when it came out. So we did the next best thing. We bought the DVD. It remains one of the best investments yet. At only RM49.90 (Purchased from Speedy Video, Pavilion including a replica of Turbo) my kids have watched it more than 50 times since purchase about a month ago. Sometimes up to 3 times a day.

How do I cope? Easy, it is entertaining enough to even keep me amused and this is coming from a guy who fancies Pulp Fiction, Star Wars, Kill Bill and etc. Turbo to me is that good.

Viola, behold Turbo

The DVD concerned

I am using the term garden snail as there are many varieties of snails that can be found. Garden snails naturally have an internal shell that varies in color, shape and size.

Here's a picture of the snail cooling itself at the base of the water fountain

Unplugged

You can see the snail comfortably curled under the flower pot

Up close and personal

Snails tend to feed on a variety of items found in their natural habitat. Hence, what they will actually consume depends on where they live and the species of snail that they are.

In the movie Turbo, snails love fresh tomato. Therefore, being the genius that I am, I placed cut slices of fresh tomatoes where they rest for them to chow down. Guess what, not only that they did not eat it but they refuse to return to their rest place.

However, I am happy to say that my kids will request for cut slices of tomatoes to eat whenever watching Turbo.

What I have learned since then is that your common garden snail’s diet includes plants, fruits, vegetables, and algae that grow in their natural surroundings. Plants that are decaying are often a good meal for them. Seeking for calcium to get a thicker shell, snails usually will eat the dirt.

Snails are nocturnal so they will be looking for sources of food during the night. However, I had noticed that our garden snail tends to make its rounds even during the day in shaded areas in our garden only.

Now my kids like to watch their garden snails from time to time to see its progress. They are fascinated by one of the many wonders of nature’s creatures. I do not know when or how they got into our garden. But it has been a year since they have made our garden their permanent home and they have grown almost twice in size since then. I guess they were looking for a suitable place to call home considering that all my neighbors no longer have gardens. Their lawn has been replaced with concrete slabs or tiles to accommodate parking of their vehicles. Leaving them with not much choice but to come to my lawn, but the kids and us are most delightful these garden snails choose our garden to make it their home.

Now to take a sharp and drastic turn, but rest assured that this will not happen to our snails. They will always remain safe and well cared for in our garden.

Like all good things, they end up served as Escargots. I doubt these are your normal garden snails, probably special snail’s bread for such purpose and fed with a special diet. Even the size is like your RM 50 cents coin unlike our garden snail which is the size like a RM1.00 note.

I had the privilege of trying Escargots à la Bourguignonne (Snails in Garlic–Herb Butter) when it was served in San Francisco Stake House in Summit USJ in 2006. Sad to say the outlet is no longer there.

Sample picture taken on the net but what we were served closely resembled this. Taste wise creamy, not chewy at all and easy to swallow. But with the above scenario now, I doubt I will be eating any more Escargots as I now look at them as “pets”.