Cobra blood

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Cobra blood and meat

Living in Jakarta is always interesting. The people are always a source of surprise, the weather is at times treacherous and the food is, well, its different.

The weekend just gone, I finally got around to trying a particular delicacy I have been wanting to try for a long time. Snake.

Note: I don't want to hear any animal welfare bullshit on this. I should note that the snake was killed instantly and more humanely than most pigs or cows in England. So put your bacon sarny down keyboard warrior and kindly get lost.

We arrived at the warung, approaching cautiously, who knows if a snake had escaped? My biggest thought at the moment was if we would have to select our "prey" not sure if I could summon myself to select the animal which would meets its fate to wine and dine us with itself.

Fortunately, the man chose for us. Taking out a snake with an agility and nimbleness that made his appearance of an old man look a sham. He secured the snake's head into a grip and swiftly chopped his head off. It was over in less than 10 seconds.

Without spilling a drop, he takes the snake over to a glass and pours ALL of its blood into it. The blood comes to less than an English shot even when mixed with some delicious rice wine.

So all there was to was to drink up - cheers.

I had heard many things about snake blood. "It gets the heart pumping faster" "its an aphrodisiac" "its like a drug" if it is anything of those things, then it is a drug like weed, because, honestly, it just put me to sleep.

After the main event, we watched on as snake meat was arranged on sate sticks and cooked for us on an open sate fire. All served with the traditional sate sauce.

My view of snake meat? It is identical to chicken in taste, but highly chewy. It was possibly the chewiest meat I've ever eaten, but well worth it. I would certainly eat the meat again, though perhaps not in such a setting.

So what is the cost of snake blood and sate? Probably a lot less than you'd imagine. My snake, which was beheaded, drained and had its blood mixed rice was came to just £5 or 100,000 Indonesian Rupiah, that is with Sate included. It sounds like a bargain to us, but that is more than some people make in a week here.

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