Snake'n around!

Last night our friends Nam, his wife Trang and daughter Y (pronounced EE) took us to one of their favorite dinning spots.

This is Nam and his family. We followed them on our own motorbike. I have to admit I do like riding by motorbike. It's a new type of freedom that awakens all my senses. Especially in such a dynamic country like Vietnam. Cars are great, but you miss the smells, the feel of the weather, the personal connections made with the chaos of every day life and with the people. Drivers constantly rev up next to us and start a conversation. It's classic. The down side is that after 20 minutes of driving your butt is numb, your ears half deaf from the honking war raging around you (honking is a religion here), and the thick film of sweat covering your skin is coated with road grime and exhaust particles (hence the re-emergence of any adolescent acne).

This place was definitely out of the way, beyond the outskirts of Hanoi. Down a small alleyway we stopped in front of this small restaurant called Ran Rao, which specializes in "11-course" snake cuisine.

The first thing we noticed as we entered the patio of the restaurant were the cages. Each one contained a different type of snake. We were asked to pick the snake we would like to dine on. Feeling queasy yet?

The owner made sure we had a chance to physically bond with our dinner first. Little Y was not thrilled about this tradition.

Pearce was undecided on how to feel about the snake.

I made my feelings known...Ehew. But I would way rather hold a snake than a tarantula.

Part of the dining experience is to watch them cut out the heart and liver, then drain the blood that will be included in the meal. It deserves motion rather than a picture. Watch with discretion...There will be blood!



After the carnage of death, we were ushered through the different levels of the restaurant, each showcasing different variations of bottled snake wines. Apparently, this restaurant consistently wins first place for its snake wine.

Bottled snake wine.

Bottled worm wine on the right. The balls in the wine vat on the left are just that...balls. Testicles to be more medically accurate. Mainly from cows, but we wouldn't count out some human ones making it in there.

Once we climbed up four flight of stairs we found our table and this very large jar of wildcat wine. Apparently you can only drink this wine if you are over the hill. It is "known" to help ailing back problems. I would rather just deal with the back problems. Or pop an Advil.

This was our selection of drinks.

What's "no thank you" in Vietnamese again.

Of course, Pearce dives into the only bread item at the table. The red snake blood wine drink in the left corner is the first of eleven dishes that were made from the snake we chose earlier (plus two of his buddies). Of course ,we didn't drink it...besides the alcohol, we're not that into drinking blood. But our friend Nam did.

The meal began with ground snake bones (far right, dark brown), two different types of snake spring rolls (green at the top and and brown in the middle), snake stir fry salad (far left), and snake skin with sesame seed batter deep fried (bottom right). All the small dishes are dipping sauces with mixes of sea salt, pepper, lime juice, and diced hot red peppers.

My first taste of snake bones on flat bread. It was wasn't bad. Crunchy. Very crunchy.

BBQ snake with spine in tack. Actually, this one was one of my favorites. The sauce was delicious. In fact, all the sauces were delicious. The owner of this restaurant works in Hanoi as a Sous Chef for a $30 per plate Italian-Vietnamese fusion restaurant. Still, Eric insists that Todd's Buchli Lake Snake recipe was just as good.

This was another of my favorite dishes, which I ate a lot of. It wasn't until after the meal, Eric tells me it was snake intestines. I am glad he waited. I swear it was really good.

Two different types of snake soup. One with rice and the other made like Pho.

The last dish was rice cooked in snake oil. And there you have it, all 11 dishes. Enough snake for a lifetime. But one of the craziest parts of the night wasn't the just the food.

Pearce, who won't eat chicken, beef, fish, or pork...let alone 95% of all fruits and vegetables, ate the snake! This, after he watched the thing get slaughtered. I give up. There is no chapter on this in any of the child rearing books. My child only eats pancakes and snake. As crazy as that was, I did leave the best for last. What, there is something crazier than Pearce eating snake? Yep. Eric eating a live, beating snake heart. Viewer discretion beware.



The lesson learned is that Eric is a real man, Pearce is unpredictable, and I can eat just about anything as long as it is prepared and seasoned well.