We collected a group and went to Snake Village, a part of town where a cluster of restaurants specialize in...damn, the name takes all the mystery out of it.
Here's the layout. A big cage of snakes as you walk in, the proprietor pulls one out and you can hold him and stroke him, whisper sweet nothings into its snake hole and gently apologize for what's about to happen.
They bring Mr. Slithers to the table and slide a sharp knife into its belly. Someone, in this case several someones, Alfie and Brawn included, open up the snake with a quick slash. They drain some of the blood into a glass of rice wine, then push the heart so it protrudes from the gash. Then, you bite the heart out of the chest and swallow it, still beating - they cut into the gallbladder and drain the bile into another glass of rice wine. You'd think Mr. Slithers would be quite dead, but he's still moving at this point so they smack the head on the ground and do him in. It's all terribly ceremonial. It also happens to be the most brutal fucking thing I've ever seen.
Nothing goes to waste. It's very Navajo. They serve you five dishes made from every part of the snake. Cheese and milk are rare in Asia, so they sauté the bones until they soften and mix them with meat and eat it on rice crackers with chili and soy. Calcium!
Snake ribs, snake steak, and one dish involving the skin, which as our guide artfully put, really brings the whole experience home. The first dish is cerimonialized with a toast and a shot of snake-blood wine. The second with bile wine. Every dish thereafter with a shot of plain rice wine. The alcohol purifies you for each dish and celebrates the glorious life of Mr. Slithers who generously offers his flesh and bones and bile for your sustenance. As it happens, you also get very smashed.
(Blood wine)
(Snake steak)
Afterwards we went clubbing.
So surreal.
Hisses and kisses.
Location:Hanoi, Vietnam
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