All Snake Menu

Some friends and we met up in Shum Shui Po for the snake dinner menu at one of the specialty restaurants in the neighborhood - the same group went for another snake meal only a month ago so consider this a sequel to that. Sher Wong Yip (Snake King Yip) is one of the handful shops remained in Hong Kong fully licensed to handle and sell live snakes. During winter months I often dropped by for a comforting bowl of snake soup and sometimes a bowl of sticky rice, another of their signature dish. But this is only my first time trying the more elaborate menu with 10 different courses, most of them cooked using snakes.

Snake Soup, And Then Some

When my friend E suggested we got together for dinner over a bowl of hearty snake soup, Ser Wong Fun is the first restaurant that came to mind. Its Central location works best for everyone, not to mention I could solicit help from my another friend G, whose family owned this restaurant for more than a century, to reserve a table and sort out the menu for us.

Snake Soup at Another Private Kitchen

I just realized it’s been more than a decade since I last ate at Ngor Je’s Private Kitchen… not since she moved to its current location in Sai Ying Pun as far as I remembered. Until a friend of ours organized a snake soup dinner there recently and asked us to join on a Sunday evening.

Snake Feast in the Cold

I certainly picked the best time for a traditional snake feast when I joined a group of foodies and wine connoisseurs to eat at a specialist restaurant in Kowloon in one of the coldest weeks in town on record.

I have had snake soup a few times already during the season but it didn't stop me from signing up for yet another snake feast when i saw the notice for the event from Slow Food Hong Kong - this time at the famous Shia Wong Hip Restaurant in Shum Shui Po. There were a handful of snake restaurants in the old district of Shum Shui Po in Kowloon, and Shia Wong Hip is the one I go quite regularly, for they are one of the few remaining licensed  establishments in town to sell live snakes, hence they keep a good supply of the freshest meat for their dishes.

Snake Soup at a Warm Winter Night

With temperature still hitting the high 20's during the day even as we approached late November, it certainly didn't feel like we were at the right season for the old-fashioned Cantonese snake soup, but that didn't stop our friend Growing Boy from rounding up a gang of friends for another night of snake soup dinner at our favorite private kitchen in town last week.

Labor Union Snake Feast

Last week we showed up at a rather unusual place - a commercial building in Kwun Tong in a makeshift dining hall - for a dinner event commonly known by locals as "labor union snake feast", something uniquely Hong Kong and with deep connection in our grassroot culture.