Tonight I got a chance to check another item off my bucket list… I ate the still beating heart of a Cobra. I did my research and found the best place in Vietnam to enjoy this delicious.  It was an experience as much as a meal.

I choose a family run restaurant with an owner who has a reputation for making it as fun and memorable as possible. When we arrived he took us out back where he has dozens of snakes in boxes and allowed us to choose our victim. He has a lot brown snakes and mountains snakes which are cheap and not deadly and he also had 3 white Cobras. These are much more rare and expensive but I didn’t come around the world to skimp here so I went all in and got the Cobra. The price is based on the size/weight.

After choosing our 5 ft cobra he took it from the cage and let us watch him piss it off. Then he asked if we were ready to kill it. Yes sir! So he smashed its head on the concrete then sliced it open, ripped the heart out and dropped it in a shot glass full of the snakes blood. He handed it straight to me and Salute!! I tried to chew, then swallowed and I could feel it beating in my throat! From here he ushered us into a private dinning room and gave us 10 year old snake wine.

The owner acted as our waiter all night and took so much pride in walking us through the experience.  He was not only informative but a lot of fun. While we drank and laughed the staff prepared a 7 course meal from our cobra. It seemed the dishes went from easy to WTF as they continued to arrive. Dragon, our host not only showed us how to eat each course but hand fed us.

The menu:

Snake spring rolls- gamey but with the spicey sauce not too bad.

Snake bones and meat in a leaf deep fried- actually had the best flavor and both our favorites.

Grilled snake- hard to get the meat off the ribs and very chewy but doable

Sautéed snake stir fry- skin and meat barely cooked with veggies. One taste and done. This was the deep end of the bizarre food pool.

Snake liver and stomach with pineapple – the liver wasn’t bad but the texture of the stomach was again just a one taste and done.

Crushed snake ribs- this was mixed into the rice and wasn’t to bad. Just very dry.

Rice- simply to help get the snake down.

10 year old snake wine- excellent. A few too many shots and even snake tastes good

Overall, the beating heart was my highlight. The atmosphere and experience was once in a lifetime. And snake, well my favorite kind of snake is a cooked snake but I think once was enough. A special thanks to the Hung family for their incredible hospitality and willingness to take us on a last minute reservation. The cost for the fixed menu with the rarest Cobra breed possibly was $160. Very pricey but worth the experience. He has a guarantee that if you don’t enjoy yourself it’s free. At the end we had a misunderstanding about the price and didn’t have the right amount of cash so the owner felt bad and wouldn’t let us pay. We finally convinced him to take our money. We both got on his scooter with him and he took us to an ATM. Even after we paid him and left, he caught up to us down the road feeling bad about the misunderstanding and begging us to keep our money. The mistake was ours and I insisted on paying.

He said $160. I thought he meant 160,000 Dong. Opps. Such a great guy and unforgettable meal.