It is snake season. That would be a really bad thing if you are hiking the Dragon’s Back trail at Hong Kong’s Shek O Country Park, but it is a really good thing if you are dining within the cities urban area. For myself, it meant that in addition to the adventure of eating chicken feet, there would also be indulgence in another Asian delicacy, Snake Soup. Hurrah.
In the Causeway Bay section of Hong Kong you will find Se Wong Yee, the tiniest eatery, with the menu out front completely written in Chinese, except for the significant bold lettering stating the sale of Snake Soup. Jackpot.
There were two options on the menu; just the plain old Snake Soup for 50 HKD ($6.50 USD) or the Snake Meal. Though the addition of duck’s liver-sausage sounded tempting, just a bowl of soup would do for this venture.
The snake soup came to the table without any resemblance of a scaly snake at all, no cylinder segments in sight. It looked more like shredded shiitake mushrooms. There was no preconceived idea of what this slithery creature would taste like, but not only did it look like mushrooms, it was similar to ingesting a meaty, earthy one too. Not bad all all. Actually quite good.
And if I hadn’t just come from eating a four course meal at the cheapest Michelin star restaurant in the World the entire bowl would have been gone.
Why did I order an entire bowl to myself? The question is mentally asked, but the answer is already known. Being a restaurateur, I felt bad taking up two seats in restaurant with only a handful of tables and sharing one bowl of soup while drinking water. These people have to make a living.
As we were leaving, with my bowl over three quarters still full, the employee looked upset, “you didn’t like my soup?” We tried to explain that I wasn’t hungry and just wanted to try snake soup, leaving the whole “she has this bucket list…” explanation out of the conversation. Pretty sure he did not believe us.
My suggestion is to go to eat snake soup on an empty stomach.
Have you or would you eat snake soup?
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Book Your Flight
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Book Your Rental Car
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Book Some Fun Tours!
Viator and Get Your Guide are my go-to search engines for cool bucket list experiences! Each one can have different tours, so check both—why limit yourself, right?
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance
Travel can be unpredictable. Whether it’s a last-minute cancellation, an injury, or (ugh) theft, things happen. That’s why I recommend never leaving the country without travel insurance. Here are my faves: Safety Wing and World Nomads.
Get Packing & Travel Essentials Ready
Check out the Bucket List Journey Amazon Store to find all my favorite travel essentials. Everything from Packing cubes, to travel adapters and toiletry containers to walking shoes.
*Lastly, check travel.state.gov for visa requirements and safety information.
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Fodor’s Hong Kong Travel Guide (book)
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Visit an Offbeat Asian Market. Hong Kong’s Goldfish Market.
Eat Dessert First at Hong Kong’s Dessert Kitchen
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To me, this soup looks delicious! I’m totally a fan of trying new foods wherever I go (except bugs – especially spiders – I draw the line at things I squish in my house…) Even if the meat HAD looked ‘snakish’ I still would have been all over that! :)
I thought it looked pretty good too! I just ate bugs in Thailand, not a fan :)
Mmmmmm That looks yummy…. When I was in Vietnam I had a snake soup that was pretty good, but it was homemade rather than purchased at a restaurant so the snake had been cut in to pretty large sections. You could definitely tell what you were eating! It was a big snake, so they had also taken some of it and chopped it up bones and all in to a kind of hamburger meat consistency, fried it up with some lemongrass, and we ate it with shrimp crackers. It was delicious! As far as the soup, though, I think I would have liked to trade my bowl for yours :-)
It would have been a completely different experience if I could actually tell that the snake was a snake ;) Hamburger-style sounds pretty tasty!