It is snake season. That would be a really bad thing if you are hiking the Dragon’s Back trail at Hong Kong’s Shek O Country Park, but it is a really good thing if you are dining within the cities urban area. For myself, it meant that in addition to the adventure of eating chicken feet, there would also be indulgence in another Asian delicacy, Snake Soup. Hurrah.
In the Causeway Bay section of Hong Kong you will find Se Wong Yee, the tiniest eatery, with the menu out front completely written in Chinese, except for the significant bold lettering stating the sale of Snake Soup. Jackpot.
There were two options on the menu; just the plain old Snake Soup for 50 HKD ($6.50 USD) or the Snake Meal. Though the addition of duck’s liver-sausage sounded tempting, just a bowl of soup would do for this venture.
The snake soup came to the table without any resemblance of a scaly snake at all, no cylinder segments in sight. It looked more like shredded shiitake mushrooms. There was no preconceived idea of what this slithery creature would taste like, but not only did it look like mushrooms, it was similar to ingesting a meaty, earthy one too. Not bad all all. Actually quite good.
And if I hadn’t just come from eating a four course meal at the cheapest Michelin star restaurant in the World the entire bowl would have been gone.
Why did I order an entire bowl to myself? The question is mentally asked, but the answer is already known. Being a restaurateur, I felt bad taking up two seats in restaurant with only a handful of tables and sharing one bowl of soup while drinking water. These people have to make a living.
As we were leaving, with my bowl over three quarters still full, the employee looked upset, “you didn’t like my soup?” We tried to explain that I wasn’t hungry and just wanted to try snake soup, leaving the whole “she has this bucket list…” explanation out of the conversation. Pretty sure he did not believe us.
My suggestion is to go to eat snake soup on an empty stomach.
Have you or would you eat snake soup?
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I love food adventures, but for some reason, I'm not sure this is one I would try O:-)
Snake soup was way better than the chicken feet, because the chicken feet actually looked like little feet :)
You continue to amaze me in your zest for unusual dishes! I have to say, your description of the soup makes me think I would enjoy it, but I still wonder if my stomach and brain can over come the thought that it is snake! The most adventurous I have been is guinea pig – so maybe the leap to snake isn't that far after all!!!
Bon appetit!
If you had guinea pig, snake should be easy peasy!
Chicken feet you can get in a stateside Chinatown, but Snake Soup I'm not sure about, sounds rather hardcore. I'd definitely try it for the sake of its culinary existence. Interesting how it looks like shiitake mushrooms and tastes good. Imagine living in Hong Kong, I wonder if it would grow on you if you were to have a bowl, say, once or twice a week.
I actually had never encountered snake soup before, until Hong Kong. I actually might even get another bowl if I ever venture back.
Oh my. Just this morning I was going through some of my son's things and found a rubber snake on the floor. It terrified me so much that I couldn't even pick it up to throw it away. I had to get a broom, a dustpan and a paper bag and still trambled all the way out to the garbage can.
Despite my overwhelming fear of snakes, believe it or not, I have eaten snake. In Germany. The host family I was staying with as a teenager fed it to me as a joke. As I recall, it didn't taste half bad, but if I'd had any inkling of what I was putting in my mouth, I would have fainted. (Now I'm wondering if maybe they didn't like me????) :)
That’s hilarious!! I think it would have been freakier if they hadn’t shredded the snake in the soup.
No haven't tried it and I don't think I could even if I was paid haha!
LOL! I completely understand :)
Asia have the most amazing food
Mmmmmm That looks yummy…. When I was in Vietnam I had a snake soup that was pretty good, but it was homemade rather than purchased at a restaurant so the snake had been cut in to pretty large sections. You could definitely tell what you were eating! It was a big snake, so they had also taken some of it and chopped it up bones and all in to a kind of hamburger meat consistency, fried it up with some lemongrass, and we ate it with shrimp crackers. It was delicious! As far as the soup, though, I think I would have liked to trade my bowl for yours :-)
It would have been a completely different experience if I could actually tell that the snake was a snake ;) Hamburger-style sounds pretty tasty!
To me, this soup looks delicious! I’m totally a fan of trying new foods wherever I go (except bugs – especially spiders – I draw the line at things I squish in my house…) Even if the meat HAD looked ‘snakish’ I still would have been all over that! :)
I thought it looked pretty good too! I just ate bugs in Thailand, not a fan :)