Now You Eat the Snake’s Beating Heart

I’m in Hanoi and the guide book told me I could go to Le Mat, right outside the city center, and eat a snake (traditionally eaten by men to increase virility). I thought that could be a pretty sweet experience, so I motorbiked over and holy crap – it was sweet indeed. I rolled into this restaurant and two dudes grabbed a live cobra out of a cage and swung it around a bit. Then they cut down its neck to spill its blood into a glass, sliced its stomach and poured green venom into another glass, then removed the still-beating heart and put that in a shot glass. Rice wine was added to each cocktail and I was encouraged to quickly down the heart while it was still kicking. It was kinda gross. The blood and venom were equally disagreeable, but not nearly as bad as they looked. (Rice wine, which tastes pretty bad on its own, is strong enough to assume the dominate flavor.) The snake itself was actually quite pleasant. I didn’t have a preferred serpent variation, so the cook chopped it up into several sections and served fried, grilled, boiled, and uncooked dishes. Most were pretty good, but I couldn’t get over the taste of the raw skin, even when accompanied by several hot peppers. But all in all, pretty freakin awesome. Video here.







Since my last update post I’ve traveled up to Northern Vietnam from Dalat to Buon Ma Thout to Da Nang to Hue and finally to Hanoi. Buon Ma Thout is a quaint little town surrounded by coffee plantations. Da Nang is a very industrial city, but in the midst of a beautiful countryside. Hue is considered the culinary capital of Vietnam and had all kinds of weird but excellent food. Hue is also a former capital of the country and holds an Imperial City and the royal tombs of the Nguyen Dynasty. Pretty cool looking.
My first impressions of Hanoi are bone-numbing cold, confusing streets, and cheap beer. While traveling up the country the weather went from super hot to super nice and now it’s straight cold, wet, and windy. I’m starting to get used to it, but still in “burr” mode. The narrow streets in the Old Quarter are crazy because they’re all named after the merchandise sold on that street (they literally translate to “Shoe Street,” “Rice Street,” “Pots and Pans Street,” etc). As the goods change from block to block, the street names change, too: “Where the hell am I? Oh, ‘Banana Street,’ great, uh, where am I?” On a happy note, while the street names change a dozen times over half a kilometer, I’ve come across several “Bia Hoi” stands that sell keg beer for 15 cents. It may not be too bad if I get stuck here over Tet!
On a side note, Vietnam is big time exercising the literal notion of a “developing country.” Every single city, town, and road I’ve traveled is under development. They’re experiencing an economic boom and putting it to maximum use: constructing new buildings, improving existing structures, and expanding roadways. A French guy who lives here told me that Vietnam is about 30 years behind Thailand and 40 to 50 years behind Europe in the development arena, but they’re working full steam ahead to catch up on the physical infrastructure just as the economy is pushing the boundaries on remaining communist restrictions. There’s certainly an air of optimism in Vietnam and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the country emerge as a major world player in the near future.