Katti (Kat-ti)

And so Fire Water Husband is partly back, still acclimatizing back to work. The family's gone to Baler, Aurora for All Souls' Day and we were supposed to be back to Laguna by the second of November. Tough luck, since our van can't make it to the steep roads of Pantabangan when rains rendered the tracks muddy in time for our drive back to Manila. Katti (or is it kat-ti?) is a snail found off the coasts of Baler. They are boiled and spiked with calamansi (calamondin). Picked fresh and sold for ten pesos a handful, sipping its broth is like tasting the waters of the Pacific. Like a little kid shouting his lungs out on his first time to Baler Bay and his father dunked his head first into the water, sand and salt becoming part of his system even if he strayed far from it. I've searched the web for katti's scientific name, and I was stalled. Not really affiliated with the Ophiodermella family, but its colorings look like the snakeskin snail, but perhaps related to the heavy turban (called buting in Baler), thus the name Turbo crassus (or was it marmarostoma? I'm not infallible, you see). The known way to eat the dainty katti is to pick the meat with a safety pin, and remove the hard "tongue" before putting it into your mouth. I did it the butong pakwan way, that is, to pile a heap of katti meat on my plate before spooning it. Who said only the French liked snails?