What Spanish seafood delicacy are goose barnacles, often eaten as a tapa? The answer is percebes. In Spain, the word usually refers to the edible goose barnacle Pollicipes pollicipes, a stalked crustacean that clings to wave-battered rocks. It is especially associated with Galicia and the northern Atlantic coast, where it is considered a prized and expensive seafood.
Percebes are not mollusks such as clams or mussels. They are crustaceans, related to other barnacles, with a tough outer capitulum and a fleshy stalk, or peduncle. The stalk is the part people eat. Because the animals grow on exposed cliffs and rocks, harvesting can be dangerous, requiring specialist gatherers known in Galicia as percebeiros.
The usual preparation is deliberately simple: the barnacles are briefly boiled in salted water, sometimes seawater, and served hot, often under a cloth to retain their heat. Diners pinch the stalk, pull away the outer skin and eat the tender interior. Their high price reflects both their flavour and the hazardous, tightly regulated work involved in collecting them.