Dinner of Mushrooms and Snails

Tonight for dinner we visited the Caves des Moines, which is built into the side of the hills along the river.  This caves came about in the 1100s because they were used to cut out the limestone that built the chateaux and cathedrals of France.  It was a laborious process of slicing the stone out of the earth and in its place left a series of caves and trails that are about 7 miles long.  Our tour guide told us how the stone was harvested and then moved on to what the caves are used for now - mushroom production and snail raising!

In the dark, humid and cold tunnels, we learned about how mushrooms are harvested.  The first kind are the champignons de Paris, which are like balloon mushrooms.  They were grown first on the floor, then in iron beds and now in bags.  It is actually quite a complicated science that takes 
several months for the mushrooms to grow.  We also saw them cultivating blue stem mushrooms as well as Shitake mushrooms and oyster mushrooms.  It was all very creepy to see all these mushrooms down there but it the perfect condition for them.  France is the 2nd largest producer of mushrooms after the US and this particular cave sells all of its mushrooms to restaurants for use in cooking.

This cave also raises snails, which are ideal because of the lack of winter.  They lay eggs (which are even more expensive than caviar - $5,000 for a kilo (2.2 pounds) of eggs.  Snails are also sold to the restaurants for escargots. The kids had an absolute ball holding them!

After our guided tour we headed to the cave’s restaurant for a taste of the local specialties we had learned about.  The first course was a mushroom tart served on a bread shell (like a half of ciabatta) and with melted cheese on top, along with a green salad.  It wasn’t a huge hit with all but many did like it. 

The second course was more of the same bread, hot from the stone oven, served with salted butter and a pork pâté spread.  You cut open the bread, shove in the cold butter and/or meat spread and let it melt together.  This was by far the most popular course of the meal besides dessert. 

Meanwhile, we ordered for each table a plate of 6 snails so they could try the escargot.  All but two kids tried it and nearly everyone who tried it liked it, much to their surprise.  Sam and Xavier were the holdouts and Michelle was not a fan. They reported that it was a bit rubbery and tasted heavily of garlic.  A few even kept their shells as souvenirs.

The next course was a bowl of white beans with chunks of pork in it.  The kids added the beans inside his roll and made a sandwich of it.  Not as many people enjoyed the beans though.

After that the 4th course was cheese (we think it was brie) melted on the same bread shells we’d had throughout the meal. Quickly afterwards we were served a 5th course of apple tart.  Most everyone liked this one too. 

We quickly left the cave to head the hour back to Tours because we are attempting to make an 8:39 showing of Cendrillion (Cinderella) at the movie theater. 7 kiddos are heading back to the hotel with 2 chaperones for an evening in. 

Here's the photos from the evening. Kudos to all for being willing to try!