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Snake soup may soon be off the Hong Kong menu
Source: AFP |
00:33 UTC+8 March 15, 2013
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Print Edition
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IN a quiet corner of bustling Hong Kong, iron cages containing writhing serpents are stacked up at the entrance to an old shop that has been selling snake soup for more than a century.
Inside, more than 100 wooden drawers store hundreds of snakes, with more than half of them labeled poisonous. Customers enjoy a thick broth costing HK$45 (US$6) a bowl.
The shop - She Wong Lam, "Snake King Lam" in the local Cantonese dialect - was started by a snake handler from Chinese mainland and is one of Hong Kong's main outlets for snake soup.
The delicacy is a favorite winter warmer as it is believed to improve the circulation and ward off illness.
Mak Tai-kwong started working at She Wong Lam in 1948 and rose to become one of Hong Kong's best-known snake handlers.
"Initially, I was very scared, but I was curious," Mak said of his first attempts at handling snakes.
"I was bitten by a non-poisonous snake ... it was like an ant biting me, so afterward I was no longer scared."
But it could be a dying trade, as some handlers say they won't pass on their businesses to the next generation.
"I don't want them to be in this line of work because first, it's harsh, second it's difficult, and third, it's dangerous," said 60-year-old Tam Kam-sun, a fourth generation snake catcher.
"The next generation may not be willing to do this, they won't do this," he said as he drank a bowl of soup made from his snakes.
Inside, more than 100 wooden drawers store hundreds of snakes, with more than half of them labeled poisonous. Customers enjoy a thick broth costing HK$45 (US$6) a bowl.
The shop - She Wong Lam, "Snake King Lam" in the local Cantonese dialect - was started by a snake handler from Chinese mainland and is one of Hong Kong's main outlets for snake soup.
The delicacy is a favorite winter warmer as it is believed to improve the circulation and ward off illness.
Mak Tai-kwong started working at She Wong Lam in 1948 and rose to become one of Hong Kong's best-known snake handlers.
"Initially, I was very scared, but I was curious," Mak said of his first attempts at handling snakes.
"I was bitten by a non-poisonous snake ... it was like an ant biting me, so afterward I was no longer scared."
But it could be a dying trade, as some handlers say they won't pass on their businesses to the next generation.
"I don't want them to be in this line of work because first, it's harsh, second it's difficult, and third, it's dangerous," said 60-year-old Tam Kam-sun, a fourth generation snake catcher.
"The next generation may not be willing to do this, they won't do this," he said as he drank a bowl of soup made from his snakes.
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