SWE (Snake Wine Experience)
May 10th, 2005 - 10:14 am
A few weekends back I had an interesting experience involving decomposing snakes and scorpions that I will record here for posterity.
Sean, a relatively new friend of mine and regular world traveler, recently took a trip to Vietnam and the Philippines. He brought back Vietnamese snake wine. An apparently rather common drink in some parts of China and Vietnam, it is basically moonshine with snakes (and sometimes salamanders, frogs, scorpions, and other creatures) soaking it it.
This is the bottle we actually drank. It was somewhat smaller and less dramatic, but trust me, it was no less fun. 
From what I can tell, the people who drink it think it serves medicinal purposes, but to me it was really all about novelty value. What you can’t see (and probably don’t want to see) in the picture above is the little pieces of what I can only assume are decomposing snake flesh.
The brave (or stupid) gearing up. (There’s no turning back now):
Surprisingly, everyone that said they were up for the challenge stuck with it. No one backed out after smelling the stuff (which smelled exactly like what you might think a decaying snake in moonshine would smell like). Here’s the proof:
Actually, the alcohol was so strong that you didn’t have time to notice how bad the snake/scorpion tasted. That would have been fine, but that stuff made us all burp a few times, giving us the opportunity to fully taste the snake we just consumed. That was the worst part by far.
Speaking of Sean. You should invite him to come to Night in White (which is really night in Black) with us. I like him.
And that sir, is vile.
Oh, man…you know you liked it!
Mmmm…snakey…^_^
do i see chasers in those pictures? weak.
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww.
I like the cobra-in-a-jar photo though.
one word…wow. Oh, and this “beverage” is common in Peru, as well, though I did not imbibe when I was there.
It’s so amazing how connected the world really is. Sean and I briefly worked together at the medical specialties clinic at Vandy. Six degrees of Kevin Bacon? More like six degrees of Vanderbilt.
Hope things are going well for you.
Sheila
That’s absolutely crazy.
And I love it. I love trying new things like that. For instance, I really want to try human meat. But not mine. And I don’t want anyone to get hurt in order for me to try it.
I second, third or fourth the “Ew.”
I have no need to try new things that are gross, just cuz they’re new. I’m pretty sure dog food is nasty… i don’t need to eat that either.
But hey, kudos to you, I guess. It’s pretty freaky.