What's For Dinner?

There is this place in Hanoi, approximately seven kilometers from the Old Quarter, or fifteen minutes by taxi, called Le Mat. There, restaurants offer exotic delicacies like cobra and other kinds of snakes.

I ordered a cobra (VND600,000).

The snake was brought out live held by the waiter by its tail, for my approval. It was hissing and attempted to land its fangs on the waiter's leg who skillfully avoided the kiss of death. After I gave my nod, the waiter slit open the throat of the snake to let its blood flow into three shot glasses half-filled with rice wine. Then, the heart was cut off and placed in one of the shot glasses.

Then the waiter again slit open a lower part of the snake's body to extract the bile which was greenish and made to drip into three more shot glasses.

The restaurant hostess then ordered me to "drink!" She explained it was good for blood circulation, headache, etc. No, she did not say it was an aphrodisiac. I obediently drank all five glasses and chewed the gummy cobra heart that was in one of the glasses.

The cobra was cooked five ways, including "cobra soup with mongo beans" and garlic rice fried in cobra fat.

I immensely enjoyed my dinner.