They are often served as an hors d'oeuvre and consumed by the French people, as well as people from Portugal, Sardinia, and Spain. They are also a typical of the cuisines of Catalonia, Crete, and Greece, as well as such North African countries as Algeria and Morocco. The word escargot is also sometimes applied to living examples of those species which are commonly eaten in this way.[1] In British English, the menu item is usually referred to simply as snails.[2][3]