Snake Alley, Taiwan

Huaxi Jie, Taipei, Taiwan

After filling up on Rooster Testicles and Deer Penis Wine, we had to hit the main attraction on Snake Alley, and down some shots of snake bile.

The restaurant hosts a twice-hourly public snake feeding. They feed a mouse to a big boa and announce the spectacle on megaphones. A crowd of families form in front of a glass cage, but no photos are allowed. (I sneaked one here):



A group of tough looking dudes take a mouse and whack its head on the floor to stun it half unconscious, then they throw it in for a big hungry snake. The snake (how lazy, he needs the dudes to feed him a whacked mouse) takes the mouse and wraps itself around it to squeeze it to death. Kids oooh and ahhh as they watch death taking place in front of their eyes. After 5 minutes of intense squeezing, the snake gobbles up the little white rat and swallows it down.

All of this is done to attract customers in, to eat the snakes, to really get that feeling you're at the top of the food chain. That's what we did.



We ordered the deluxe set -- a bowl of snake soup, snake oil pills, and shots of liquor with snake bile, snake blood, snake sperm, snake venom, and snake urine.

Why would one drink this stuff? According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), these fluids benefit you in many ways, each one a unique cure or booster. Of course, they claim to have aphrodisiac qualities as well. Some of it's good for your liver, some curbs cancer, some are good for your sense of humor. We just drank them to look macho and get drunk.

The shots all tasted like liquor and medicine, that nasty sweetness. Soon after, we discovered a snake in our pants. Ouch!

They also have these snake pills for sale...



If you're visiting Taipei, tell your taxi driver Huaxi Jie, and get ready for some shots of snake semen, yum!