Where can I eat a cobra (or any snake) in Hong Kong?
I was reading a travel article by Nick Tosches in Vanity Fair on his search for opium dens in Asia. One section stood out for me:
Cobra soup—the more venomous the serpent, the more potent the tonic; gelatinous and steaming and delicious beyond description—garnished with petals of snow-white chrysanthemum. Later, amid the crowded stalls of the night market, we watch as an elderly Chinese man hands over a small fortune in cash to another elderly man, a snake seller much esteemed for the rarity and richness of poison of his stock. The snake man pockets the money, narrows his eyes, and with a studied suddenness withdraws a long, writhing serpent from a cage of bamboo. Holding it high, his grasp directly below its inflated venom glands, its mouth open, its fangs extended, he slashes it with a razor-sharp knife from gullet to midsection, the movement of the blade in his hand following with precise rapidity the velocity of the creature’s powerful whiplashings, which send its gushing blood splattering wildly. Laying down the blade, the snake man reaches his blood-drenched hand with medical exactitude into the open serpent, withdraws its still-living bladder, drops it into the eager hands of his customer, who, with gore dripping from between his fingers onto his shirt, raises the pulsing bloody organ to his open mouth, gulps it down, and wipes and licks away the blood that runs down his chin.
I have tried time and again in my travels around Asia to find any place that sells snake, without any luck. So I'm looking for advice here:
- Firstly, is it legal to eat a cobra or any other species of snake in Hong Kong?
- If yes, then where can I find it? Is there any particular locality or restaurant that specialises in it?
- The article mentions "a small fortune in cash" being required for payment. How 'expensive', in real terms, would this gastronomic experience be?
Best Answer
From the Wikitravel piece on Hong Kong and eating exotic meats, it sounds like there are a few restaurants that sell it and it's likely legal. They even name restaurants that sell it:
While Hong Kong has long banned dog and cat meat and has strict rules on importing many meats of wild life animals, snake meat is commonly seen in winter in different restaurants that bear the name "Snake King". Served in a sticky soup, it is believed to warm your body.
About.com states that Kowloon is probably the place to go:
A favourite winter warmer in Hong Kong, snake soup is considered somewhat of a gourmet dish. Most of the city’s snake meat is now delivered chilled or frozen from China, but to try the meat and the soup at its best you need to have it fresh, which means braving the handful of live snake restaurants that still exist in Kowloon. Here, you pluck your favourite python or cobra from behind a cage and watch him slither to the chopping block, with more unusual snakes attracting heavier price tags. The soup comes with the snake shredded inside, although, if you’re braver, you can try sliced snake in a host of other dishes. As it seems with almost all exotic meats, many say it tastes like chicken.
But probably the most useful article (for you) comes from the Wall Street Journal which lists contact details AND a price:
Price: 800 HKD [~100 USD] (serves four). Cuisine Cuisine, IFC Mall, Central, Hong Kong, tel: +852 2393 3933
The article was written in 2010, so there's still a reasonable chance it'll be around.
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Can you eat a cobra snake?
The short answer is yes, all snakes in North America are perfectly fine to eat. The main consideration you should have is the likelihood of being bitten by a venomous one in your attempt to catch a snake.Does Hong Kong have cobras?
Another common species of snake found in Hong Kong, the Chinese cobra is usually black, grey or light brown with a distinctive white monocle pattern on its neck. Once again, it's extremely venomous and has caused fatalities in Hong Kong.Are there any snakes in Hong Kong?
There are more than 50 snake species around Hong Kong, not including the six species of sea snake that are mostly absent from our waters nowadays. Although venomous snakes are common in all 24 of Hong Kong's country parks, the last recorded snakebite death in Hong Kong occurred over 20 years ago.Are there king cobras in Hong Kong?
King Cobras are found all over Hong Kong including Hong Kong Island but in small numbers. They eat rodents, lizards as well other snakes and as such can be found from forested areas to areas around lakes and rivers as well as water culverts and jogging trails.Village food | How to Cook Bigs King Cobra Soup ??
More answers regarding where can I eat a cobra (or any snake) in Hong Kong?
Answer 2
Try Se Wong Yee, 24 Percival St, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong call (852/2831 0163).
This restaurant is famous for snake soup.
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