SNAKE SOUP - CURES BODILY AILMENTS, BLOOD NOURISHMENT AND IMPROVES SKIN QUALITIES

Snake soup (Cantonese: 蛇羹, Pinyin: she geng) is a popular Cantonese delicacy and health supplement in Hong Kong, which contains the meats of at least two types of snakes as the main ingredients.
The soup tastes slightly sweet because of the addition of chrysanthemum leaves and spices, while the snake meat in the soup is said to resemble the texture and taste of chicken meat.


Snake soup is usually served in specialized stores known as "Snake King" or "Shea Wang" (literal meaning: an expert in cooking snakes), mostly located in Shum Shui Po and Kowloon City, in fall or winter season for approximately $60 HKD ($7.75 USD) (NGN 2500) per bowl. Originated centuries ago during the Era of Warring States, snake soup has been lauded in Chinese culture for its alleged medicinal benefits and high nutritional value. However, there are concerns in recent years that the snake soup industry in Hong Kong is on the decline because soup makers have few people to whom to pass on their skills.

Typical snake soup recipe calls for at least two types of snakes whose flesh is shredded into thread-like wires, boiled with chicken, pork bone, lean meat, fish maw, fungus, ginger, lemon leaves and other spices for flavour.  
 
The breed of snake used in cooking varies from place to place but water snake and python snake are popular choices. Chinese cobra, Banded krait, Indo-Chinese Rat Snake, Tri-rope beauty snake and Hundred-pace viper are commonly used in snake soups. At many restaurants that serve snake soups, customers are able to choose, according to their preference, live snakes to be prepared.

Snake meat is light pink in color. On a par with fish, snake meat tastes much richer and is chewier than the former. It tastes like chicken too – though a tad tougher.


It is believed in old Chinese medical books that snake soup has a number of medicinal benefits, including the cure of bodily ailments, blood nourishment, improvement of skin quality and increase in one's qi or energy levels.It is also widely believed among the Chinese people that snake soup is a "warming" food, which heats up the body (or gives it yang which can balance the "cooling" yin during the winter season.

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