It’s again a wonderfull evening in Phan Thiet. Everyone enjoys the fresh seafood and local beer. For us it’s also time to eat something ‘special.’ We think about crabs, sharks and crocodiles. But eventually we go for the cobra snake. I mean. Why not? And then we are… Sitting in a restaurant with an amazing view on the sea. A Vietnamese guy comes to pick up our order. We want a cobra snake. He is confused. So we are now also confused. Because we thought it’s normal here. He calls his friend to order a cobra snake. ‘Special for us.’ We need to wait for the snake.
My friend goes to get some cash from the ATM (Vietnamese cashmachine). I wait. Drink some bear. Wait. Then some thoughts begin to come. ‘Is it safe to eat a poisonous snake? Should I do it? Or better not? Maybe I can die because of the poison?’ The people of the restaurant don’t know English. Im scared as shit. But it would be a cool dead… Not many people die by a snake. So I relax and wait for it.
My friend comes. And the snake arrives too. An Asian guy with some big biceps puts his backpack on the ground. Out of it he takes a small bag. From the bag you hear the sound of the snakes. SSSST… They are not happy at all! He plays with them and the snakes become agressive. Sometimes they attack and show their sharp teeth. The man graps the head of a snake. He shows the dangerous animal. Everyone is coming to see the spectacle. Even the restaurant staff comes to make some photos. Hmm snake eating is not so normal as we thought. The Vietnamese guy puts his fingers in the head of the snake and kills it in a second. Then some fluid of the snake comes into the glass.
We are watching with open mouth. He pours the alcohol with some yellow snake fluid. And yea… We take the first shot. It was not so bad! We don’t know what it was. Hopefully not snake piss. Then he cuts with his scissors the head of the snake off. Blood flows in the shot glasses. The vodka colours red. They staff say: ‘drink!!’ So we shot the snake blood. I taste it with my tongue and lips. It’s really nice! Now it’s time for the beating cobra heart. The man cuts the belly of the snake open and takes out the heart. He takes a bord and puts the heart on it. It is still beating. You can see it move. There is one heart so I pass it to my friend. He goes for it and swallows the cobra heart. He feels it moving in his throat and needs some beer to flush it away. Our first snake try is completed. Now we wait for the soup and the grilled snake meat.
We enjoy a cigaret and a beer. We are thinking about if we can get poisoned by drinking the blood or not? Because the guy didn’t cut the head off but just let some juice and blood flow in the glasses. We asked if the poison is out. They said yeyeye. As always the guys didn’t understand it. But we are still oke so it was good. I think? Now a guy comes with some snake soup and grilled snake meat. It taste a bit as winegums and chicken. There are some leaves for a nice mint flavour. But we need to be careful for the bones. First we eat the snake skin also, but later figure out it’s not so good to eat it. We enjoy the meal!
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