Food on Fridays: Slug Slime

Since today is actually Saturday, I guess the proper title for the post should be one Chris suggested: Slug Slime Saturday. You see, today we look at an Arcata, California food delicacy that involves slugs. Specifically, Slug Slime.

I should start by saying that there are some rather large slugs here in Arcata:

Our slug “neighbor”

That’s a photo of the slug that often shows up on the wall across from our outdoor tub/shower. In this photo it seems to be curled up – maybe it’s taking a nap? But it is more typically stretched out straight along the wall like this:

Our slug “neighbor” stretching out

Except, that is, when it is on the ground, as it was earlier this week when Chris almost stepped on it. It later left a trail of slug slime as it slithered away, so we knew that it had survived the encounter. But oddly (or perhaps not) we then didn’t see it for days. But it appeared this evening – the second photo above was taken today.

But that’s not what I want to talk about in this post, since this was originally supposed to be a Food on Friday post. You see, the Slug Slime I really want to talk about is a special condiment made by a bagel place in Arcata called Los Bagels:

Bottles of Slug Slime, Los Bagels, Arcata

The Arcata Slug Slime is the blend of seasonings and doesn’t look like or have anything to do with real slugs:

When Los Bagels opened its doors in 1984, we turned a bagel machine malfunction into an opportunity. What should have been a bagel looked more like a banana slug. Instead of calling it a disaster, we piled on the dazzling flavors of roasted onions, crisp garlic and crunchy seeds. Órale! A slug was born and has been our most popular bagel ever since.

Over time we kept getting requests for the excess toppings. This was affectionately called “Slug Slime”. We now produce our “Slug Slime” for use in Restaurants & Kitchens around the world, so you can share in the goodness any time you like. – From the Los Bagels website

There’s a photo on their website of the Slug bagel, in case you’re curious — it’s long and covered in Slug Slime (i.e. garlic, salt, poppyseed, etc. … ). We saw them, but opted for a more traditional round bagel. They have different kinds of bagel sandwiches you can order; the one we tried is called the Cucumbin. It’s described on the menu as “Whipped Cream Cheese, Cucumbers, Larrupin, & Slug Slime”. Here’s a photo:

Cucumbin Bagel, Los Bagels, Arcata

I initially though the yellow lines were the Slug Slime, since it reminds me of the concept of real slug slime. But in fact, the yellow is Larrupin, a dill mustard sauce that’s another invention of Los Bagels. Their Slug Slime seasoning is sprinkled on top of the Larrupin. I guess Larrupin was invented after Slug Slime. I mean, once they’d named their long bagel a “slug”, when they started selling the topping they opted for the cutsey name Slug Slime. But then when they invented something that looked more like slug slime, they were stuck with having to come up with another name, even though the Larrupin looks slimier than Slug Slime. The Los Bagels website doesn’t offer an origin story for the Larrupin mustard; a 30-second Internet search just now indicates that ” larrupin’ ” is some sort of slang that mean ” spankin’ good or thumpin’ good”.

Two together … wherever

Food on Fridays: Slug Slime

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