Goose barnacles ✦ ◆

Pouces-pieds

What it is

Harvested from wave-battered cliffs on Galicia’s “Coast of Death” by percebeiros roped against the swell — Europe’s most expensive seafood partly prices the danger of picking it. Medieval Europe believed barnacle geese hatched from them, which conveniently made goose acceptable dinner during Lent.

In the kitchen

Thirty seconds in boiling seawater — or salted water with a bay leaf — then straight to the table under a cloth. Twist, peel, bite: it tastes of the wave that nearly took the picker.

Goes with

Lemon Olive oil Bay leaf

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