Snake Wine
Originally uploaded by e_gilman
This is a singular Asian concoction. It’s pretty much what it sounds like: rice wine, with a snake in it. Or maybe two snakes, depending on what you’re drinking. Usually a cobra, or a cobra and a green snake, maybe with some ginseng tossed in. I don’t know what folk medicine beliefs underlie this particular mix, but it’s become rather ubiquitous as a tourist draw in Vietnam and Cambodia. I was able to pick up a bottle from some American importers (I use the term loosely; I don’t think the manufacturers of this stuff actually have international distribution deals, and there isn’t even a label on the bottle) to give it a try. The result of putting a dead cobra in a bottle of rice wine is a dark, burning rice wine with an air of snake carcass (which air is almost pretty much the entire nose of said beverage). It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever drank, but having tried it once, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to drink it again.
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