Shia Wong Hip @ Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong

By Angeline - August 31, 2011

Asian restaurants begin serving steaming hot dishes that trace back hundreds years, the traditional Chinese medicine suggest eating “heating” foods during cold spells. In Hong Kong, the cold-blooded snake is a favorite ingredient for warming up. Traditionally served from a family-run stalls, snake soup purportedly speeds up blood circulation and banishes winter aches. The reptile meat is sweetened with chrysanthemum and herbs, is chopped into a very un-snake-like appearance for serving and said to taste like chicken.

Shared by Gengta Tan

Shia Wong Hip - Snake Soup

170, Ap Liu Street,

ShamShuiPo, Kowloon

(HKR Station A2 Exit Turn Left)

Tel: 23869064/ 27285600

Website: http://www.shiswonghip.com/

Price for Snake Soup: HKD40/ HKD65/ HKD80/ HKD140

Snake Soup, HKD40

Snake soup is considered a gourmet dish, the meat and the soup at its best when you had it fresh, which means braving the handful of live snake restaurants that only exist in Kowloon. Here, you pluck your favourite python or cobra from behind a cage and watch him slither to the chopping block, with more unusual snakes attracting heavier price tags. The soup comes with the snake shredded inside, although, if you’re braver, you can try sliced snake in a host of other dishes. As it seems with almost all exotic meats, many say it tastes like chicken.