By Carolyn Keister Baker — Daily Staff Writer

STRASBURG — Sam Mumper, chef and proprietor of the Strasburg Old Mill Restaurant, recently received an unusual request for a French culinary delicacy — a culinary delicacy he had not prepared for more than a decade.

"Oh, I can get snails," he told his customer, who stirred his interest in this popular French dish.

While escargot is not a food everyone enjoys, and certainly not a regional favorite, Mumper decided to give these land mollusks a try, adding it to his list of specials.

"Not many [area] restaurants have snails on the menu," Mumper says.

After several months of testing escargot as an appetizer on his nightly specials, Mumper discovered there is a market for snails in the Northern Shenandoah Valley. People enjoy this mollusk as a special treat when they spend an evening out for dinner.

"I wasn't sure how well it would go," Mumper admits. "It's a nice surprise." Now some of his customers come to the restaurant specifically for escargot.

Mumper and his wife, Pat, leased the historic Old Mill from Peggy Pappas in May to offer a fine foods restaurant and catering facility to the town and surrounding area. The menu features a variety of gourmet dishes including scallops, veal scaloppine, lamb rack, filet mignon and shrimp scampi.

When he introduces a new menu this spring, Mumper plans to add escargot to the appetizers as a standard offering.

He buys the escargot, imported from France, from a local vendor. The snails are already prepared and precooked, which eliminates the long drawn out process required to clean snails before they can be consumed.

Snails eat a variety of plants that can be harmful for people to eat or unpleasant in taste. So, before snails can be consumed, their digestive tract is emptied. Snails must go through a period of fasting before they are cleaned and cooked, according to food reference guides, including "The New Larousse Gastronomique" and the Web site www.france-property-and-information.com.

There are more than 116 snail species, and most are edible. The two most commonly eaten in France are the Helix aspersa and the Helix pomatia, according to the Web site.

Oysters, clams, mussels and scallops, more familiar fare in the valley, also are mollusks.

To attest to the popularity of his new menu offering, Mumper notes that he has already gone through six large tins of escargot in about four months, he says.

Escargot, a French word which means edible snail, can be prepared in a variety of ways. But on a recent afternoon, Mumper prepared these mollusks in his Old Mill kitchen with a rich French sauce of garlic, shallots, Burgundy wine and a demi-glace of reduced veal stock, producing a fantastic aroma.

Mumper first sautéed the snails in unsalted butter, garlic, shallots, salt and freshly ground pepper, tossing the snails as they began to sizzle in the pan. "It's a very simple dish," Mumper reveals.

As the mollusks continued to cook, Mumper added Burgundy and then finally the veal stock.

"[The sauce] seems to work for us," Mumper adds.

As New American cuisine became popular in 1980s, heavy French dishes were replaced with more variety and a lighter cuisine. "People were exposed to different dishes," Mumper explains.

As result, escargot became a casualty, he says.

Mumper says he believes many people today find escargot delicious because of the sauces in which they are prepared. Escargot also can be prepared with béarnaise, which is a rich sauce made with white wine, tarragon and shallots, and choron, also a béarnaise-like sauce tinted pink with tomato puree, he says.

"They order it for the sauce," Mumper says. Snails "are like a sponge," soaking up delectable flavors.

French cuisine never goes out of style, Mumper emphasizes. "People appreciate it if it is done well."

While escargot is occasionally served in snail shells, Mumper serves his escargot appetizer in a special stainless dish without the shells.

On a recent evening, "Escargot a la mode Du Chef" was one of the appetizer specials for $7.95 at the Strasburg Old Mill Restaurant. The other appetizer special that evening was "Fresh Mussels," served with a cream sauce with onions, garlic and fresh herbs for $7.25.

The Mumpers, who also own the Hi-Neighbor Restaurant in Strasburg, leased and operated the food and beverage service at Ramada Inn in Woodstock for more than a decade. Mumper earlier served as executive chef of the Wayside Inn in Middletown and general manager of the Ramada Inn Luray, now the Days Inn Luray. As part of his training, Mumper took class work at the Culinary Institute of America in New York.

The Strasburg Old Mill Restaurant is open for the winter on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays from 4:30 to 9 p.m.; and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. For reservations, call 465-5590.

*Contact Carolyn Baker at cbaker@nvdaily.com.