Travel Talk

Cobra Heart – Downing it while still beating in Vietnam

The video at the bottom is of preparing a King Cobra Curry in the Mekong Delta.  In it you’ll see yours truly downing a still beating cobra heart, the liver and drinking blood. Sounds morbid but at the time it was all fun and games. Legend has it, if you eat a cobra heart while it’s still beating it brings you untold virility. In true stop having a boring life fashion, it had to be done. Watch the video to see exactly what happened.

eating a still beating cobra heart

Devouring a still beating cobra heart isn’t for everyone

When shooting odd animal internal organs you don’t really taste it so its not that intense. Drinking the cobra blood was another story and that will be uploaded later this week or next week. This was all done on the private Mekong delta tour. A tour that started with some gent approaching me while I was having a breakfast. Oddly nobody but myself wanted to drink the still beating cobra heart in a shot of low quality vodka, I’m puzzled.

king cobra curry

The curry was alright but the experience is what it was all about. If you’re in SE Asia, go to Vietnam (one of my fav countries) and go on a private tour if you can. The organized tours “just aren’t the same”. If you enjoyed this be sure to watch the “Eating Rats in Vietnam” video as well.

Drinking cobra blood is for the boys

There is footage of eating all the ginger left from the blood. A task which was arguably the grossest thing of the whole process. It doesn’t look like much realistically. The tour guide refuses to eat it. The guy who makes it take a small bite then spits it out it gives you an idea of the taste.  All the boys loved the blood as weird as that sounds. It was some weird primitive bonding. The blood isn’t so bad. When it came to the cobra organs, less people were interested.

Taking the cobra heart is for the few

Given the chance to eat a still beating cobra heart, do it. When I got to HCMC after, my friend’s met this beautiful woman. I walked in and she looked at me and said “finally a real man is here”. This stuff doesn’t happen everyday and I can’t make it up. What happened after is irrelevant but use your imagination. I owe it all to that cobra heart, it’s not for the faint of heart though…

The dude in Pj’s is missing a finger from a cobra bite. He had to cut his finger off then drive himself to a hospital god knows how far away. He said if he didn’t cut his finger off, he’d be dead. He catches the snakes and when random tourists come through on a private tour … They can order them from the menu, if he has any in stock.

That’s about it from SHABL for now.

Tips hat,

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