Snake village - Le Mat

---

One thing that should definitely be on your itinerary is a trip to Le Mat - Snake Village! It’s about 10-15 minutes from Old Quarters on the back of a motorcycle-taxi, and trust me, you do want to take a taxi. Any taxi driver will be able to take you there, drop you off, and pick you up a couple of hours later. Don’t worry so much about which is the best restaurant, they are all more or less the same. You can ask your hotel or your driver for any recommendation. If not, just ask your driver to stop at any of the restaurants and have a look inside. Don’t get alarmed by the some carport-ish look of the restaurants, that’s downstairs where they keep (breed?) and prepare the snakes. Most restaurants have the dining-space upstairs, and they ate really lovely. Most of the waiters at the restaurants don’t speak any English, but most have an English and Vietnamese menu, so you should be fine. You might attract all the waiters to come and talk to you, as they seem quite impressed with foreigners coming to eat snake. Oh, didn’t I mention that? That’s what you are there for, to have snake for dinner!!

They will have set dinner menus of snake, which most likely be consisting of 7-8 courses of the various parts of the snake, as well as the blood and heart. After having negotiating price for the snake they will most likely bring the snake up from the kitchen for you to inspect it and approve of it - and yes, it will be alive. I paid US$20 for a quite big one (and quite frisky as well), and remember, you have to buy the whole snake, even if you are only one person. When you have approved of the snake, I had the waiters cutting open the belly of the snake in front of me, and ripping out the heart. Then he cut open the throat of the snake, and with the same motion as you would have twisted the water out of a towel, he twisted the blood out of the snake and into a small bowl. Then the snake disappeared downstairs to be made into dinner for me, and oh yeah, it still moved…

One of the other waiters will whisk the blood into spirit for you, and you will be presented with this as a shot. Don’t worry, it doesn’t taste blood at all, as the spirit they use taste like really bad moonshine - and I do mean really bad!! The story goes that snake is a really manly food, makes hair grow on your chest and all that. And the blood of the snake is even manlier. Anyway, they will be impressed if you fearlessly down the shots, and after a fair few it isn’t such a big deal anymore. Whether it’s because you realize that it’s not so bad, or because you start to get quite tipsy can be discussed. The waiter will also most likely put the heart into a shot-glass and pour spirit over it, and you are also expected to shot this one. And don’t worry, it’s quite small, and you won’t even feel it go down your throat. And trust me, it’s way less gross than the maggot in tequila. Besides, it’s the manliest thing in the snake, and also traditionally the thing that is offered the guest of honour. And, you will score lots of street-cred by shotting it. They might, at this stage offer you snake-liquor, but I would highly recommend you to decline, and go with beers of some sorts. First, the snake-liquor taste really gross, and I do mean really gross, and second, after so much shots you do want to be able to hang on to the bike when your driver comes to pick you up.

Then the dishes will start to arrive. I got soup with snake meat, then the snake’s tail with crispy lemongrass, grounded snake bones which has been deep-fried and spiced up, then another soup with the ribcage of the snake, crispy snake-skin, mini-spring rolls with snake meat, and rice made with snake broth. The taste is really good - and no, it doesn’t taste like chicken!!

---