Can Tho girl "puts sleeping snails" to work as a specialty

Ms. Dang The Quynh Anh was a student of Agricultural Economics at Can Tho University. After graduating, she worked in many places with a good salary. When she got married and stayed home to take care of her children, this woman thought about finding a job to increase her income and not depend on her husband.

Ms. Dang The Quynh Anh with her smoked snail products. Photo by Hong Tham

Ms. Quynh Anh said: "I once enjoyed the grilled snail dish and always remembered the delicious taste. Therefore, when realizing the demand of consumers, my husband and I decided to learn the old way of making the grilled snail model."

In 2019, Quynh Anh began experimenting with making smoked snails in the traditional way taught by her parents, initially with a quantity of about 10 kg. However, due to lack of experience, she could not distinguish which types of snails had the ability to "hibernate", the loss rate was high, so she had to go through many failed attempts.

Currently, the products are mainly sold wholesale to restaurants, eateries, and tourist areas in Can Tho city and sold by hand-carrying to the US, Australia, etc. Photo by Hong Tham

Not giving up, to have quality input materials, Ms. Quynh Anh did not hesitate to travel hundreds of kilometers to upstream provinces such as An Giang and Dong Thap to choose and buy snails. After a period of learning and experimenting, Ms. Quynh Anh's model of hanging snails in the kitchen was initially successful.

After that, she took advantage of the empty space on the rooftop to build a "bedroom" for the snails with an area of more than 10 square meters. By 2023, seeing that the model had stabilized, she officially opened a specialty store with the brand name "Miss Ut's grilled snails".

Before being brought into the bedroom, snails are cleaned, healthy ones are selected, and soaked in water for about 6 - 8 hours to remove dirt. Photo by Hong Tham

"The snails are carefully selected to remove those that do not meet the requirements such as broken shells or are too small. Then, the snails must be soaked in clean water for 6-8 hours to release dirt, then put into a "sleeping" room. The snails are placed in a plastic basket lined with a thick layer of straw, from 1 week to 1 month they will automatically "hibernate". When sleeping, the snails must maintain a dry, airy temperature like in the wild for about 2-3 months to achieve quality products" - Ms. Quynh Anh shared about the process of making kitchen snails.

"The most important thing when making snails for hanging in the kitchen is the source of the snails. The snails must be of good quality, plump and healthy to be able to hang in the kitchen. In particular, making snails requires meticulous attention to every step, including paying attention to the room temperature (about 24 degrees Celsius) when the snails are "hibernating". At the same time, each snail must be checked to remove dead snails. If you are careless, if just one dead snail is not removed immediately, the problem will gradually spread to the others" - Ms. Quynh Anh shared.

Before cooking, the snails are soaked in fresh milk, coconut milk, eggs or depending on each person's taste. Due to lack of water for many months, the snails immediately absorb a lot of water into their bodies, so the snail meat blends with the fragrant and delicious mixture of water.
Photo by Hong Tham

The highlight of the kitchen snails is that they are clean (because the dirt has been removed before), plump and round, can be preserved for a long time so they can be transported far away; at the same time, the snail meat is white, chewy, delicious and more fragrant than snails raised in ponds or snails living in the wild.

Currently, each year, Ms. Quynh Anh sells about 3-4 tons of smoked snails to the market, at a price of about 220,000 VND/kg. The products are mainly sold wholesale to restaurants, eateries, and tourist areas in Can Tho city and sold by hand-carried form.

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