Snake Soup: Hong Kong’s Slithery Cuisine
A black cobra is one of the deadliest snakes in the world…
Get bitten by one of these and you have around four hours to get to the hospital. But for Ms. Chau, one of Asia’s venomous snakes is dinner.
“Snake meat contains very high protein, collagen, no fat and cholesterol, the bone contains very high calcium.”
She owns Hong Kong’s oldest restaurant for snake soup. And the culinary tradition is thought to heal everything from bronchitis to delirium.
Ms. Chau’s father started selling snakes in the early 1960s when families took home the reptiles for cooking. But modern tastes are changing and few of the younger generation know how to prepare the cuisine.
“A bowl of snake soup can have as many as five different s varieties of snake. Poisonous or not, it is said to have the same healing effect.”
And snake soup has even made the menu at one of Hong Kong’s swankiest Chinese restaurants. So from the white tablecloth restaurants, back to the traditional snake café, diners agree that the health benefits are enough to keep them salivating.
“If you eat snake soup in the summer time, your sweat will be yellow in color…it’s detoxifying.”
This ancient detox for today’s health conscious is said to benefit all whose nerves aren’t rattled by a slithering cuisine.
Bottom line: Once found only in back alleys or local markets, even Michelin-starred restaurants now serve one of Asia’s more unique comfort foods – snake soup.
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