Apple slug

"During my time manning rigs on Subterrel, I'd occasionally use one of the low-volume mining sluices to prepare this tasty stew, made with ripe apple slugs, Ojomian onions, space-carrots and a pinch of negamo. Today, we make the stew more traditionally, in a pot on a nanowave stove, but it's just as flavorful as ever."

―Dexter Jettster, menu for Dex's Diner^[1]

The apple slug was a type of slug that shared its name with the apple fruit. When the^[1] Besalisk^[2] Dexter Jettster was working as a miner on^[1] the Outer Rim Territories^[3] planet^[4] Subterrel,^[1] he^[2] would sometimes use ripe apple slugs as an ingredient in preparing the dish known as apple slug stew. Years later, after Jettster had become a chef and the owner of the restaurant Dex's Diner on the^[1] Core Worlds^[5] planet Coruscant, he included the stew, as well as apple slug sauce, on the establishment's menu.^[1]

Behind the scenes

"I have a fondness for abandoned concepts, hence the inclusion of the donut droid as well as references to Revwiens, Adarians, apple slugs and even Kenner's Mongo Beefhead Tribesman. (The Revwiens and Adarians are cut concepts that had already been brought into canon, but I believe this is the first time any allusion to the apple slugs or the Mongo Beefhead Tribesman has made it into an official piece.)"

―Gregory Walker^[6]

The "Apple Slug" maquette created for Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi — The "Apple Slug" maquette created for *Star Wars*: Episode VI *Return of the Jedi*

As first documented in the 1995 book From Star Wars to Indiana Jones: The Best of the Lucasfilm Archives by Mark Cotta Vaz and Shinji Hata, "Apple Slug" was a nickname given by the team of Creature Design Supervisor Phil Tippett of the 1983 original trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, to one of the several alien lifeforms slated to appear in the sequences of the film taking place at Jabba's Palace^[7] on the planet Tatooine.^[5]

The design was realized as a prototype maquette, which depicted it as a mound-shaped alien with wrinkled, green skin; a gaping maw with a red tongue; and four segmented, hooked, black appendages.^[7] The concept was eventually abandoned and not used in the film; however, Gregory Walker intentionally referenced it^[6] via a mention of the "apple slug" in the 2009 Hyperspace-exclusive StarWars.com article "Dining at Dex's."^[1]