Snake Soup

The recent earthquake in Taiwan has made the internet slow and logging into blogger difficult from Asia, so we apologize for the delay in updates...



I was in Hong Kong recently, to visit my friend PaPeRo. PaPeRo is a robot made by NEC. I was asked to perform (as a DJ) at NEC's booth at the ITU, a massive technology expo. My little friend PaPeRo does cool stuff like talk in 7 languages, dance, use GPS to track down where my friends and fans are, does internet searches for me, and if you tickle him a bit too much, he farts (although he's polite and calls it "break wind"). He's also kind of a flirt, we found him chatting up all the models at the expo, getting phone numbers and posing for pics with the cute ones.

One day, PaPeRo scored a dinner date with a girl who suggested they go for snake soup. One of PaPeRo's features is that he can detect human emotion. He could tell I was a bit jealous. After teasing me a bit, he invited me to tag along, so I could check out the snake soup for WeirdMeat. Another of Papero's features is that he can taste food for you, so he's a perfect companion for weird meat explorations.



We went to a little cafe in Causeway Bay, you know the typical Hong Kong ones with white tile floors, steamy windows, and elderly waiters that have more wit and energy than I could ever dream of. In the window at this place, there are several large glass jars with snakes in them, including one fearsome looking king cobra.

We ordered a bowl of the house standard snake soup. Everyone was having this. According to the waiter there are 5 different snakes in it -- I mean, 5 kinds of snake. Including the king cobra. The soup was yummy, with a comforting, mildly savory broth, and plenty of snake meat. Snake meat is similar to eel, but more delicate and white like fish. It's supposed to be good for you, especially in winter, and like everything in Chinese medicine, an aphrodisiac.

PaPeRo just giggles when I ask him how the rest of the night went.



We didn't make it to Kowloon's Snake Street this time, but there's a good article about that here. We'll have to do pics there next time.

BTW, is my PaPeRo robot friend a communist?