Be still my beating heart.......or should I say hearts!

The other night I was channel surfing and caught an episode of Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape in Vietnam.  He ate the beating heart of a Cobra that was then cooked up and prepared for the rest of the meal.

This brought back amazing memories for me of one particular trip I did to Vietnam.

A few years ago I had the privilege of traveling around Asia developing new markets for an agricultural exporter that I worked for at the time.

I had just completed a successful week of business in Vietnam with our local agents and we decided to celebrate by going for a meal at a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh city.  Funny how they 'forgot' to tell me that this restaurant specialised in snake.

We arrived at the restaurant and were taken to a private room out the back for business people.  Whilst enjoying my first Heineken and reflecting on the week that was, I was told that the restaurant specialised in snake dishes and was I up to the task.  

They already knew that I was pretty adventurous, so of course it wasn't a problem.  I simply thought that we would order some dishes from a menu and out it would come.  No biggy right?!!

Well a few minutes later I started to notice that more and more of the staff were shuffling into the room and standing there grinning and laughing with all eyes on me.

As I stood up to shake hands with the owner of the restaurant who had just entered the room and introduced himself, I noticed that one particular lad with a glint in his eye, was standing back holding a hessian sack that seemed to be squirming.

Our agent explained to me that the restaurant rarely has Westerners and so the owner would like to show me traditional preparation of the snake.  I respectfully said yes! I'd love to see it.

The young lad holding the bag produced a 5ft grey water python and presented it for my inspection and approval.

The snake was then cut and its blood drained into a container.  At this stage I still had no idea what was coming.

They then cut out the heart of the snake and placed it on a small dish - it was still beating.  The heart was put into a shot glass and covered in a high octane rice wine and handed to me - it was still beating.

Our agent explained to me that drinking the snake heart would keep me a healthy, strong and virile male.  Not a bad sales pitch really - so oh well, when in Rome...............and down it went.

I then drank two glasses of the snake's blood (mixed with rice wine) and then either the kidneys or liver.  Overall the staff and owner were quite impressed.  The rest of the snake was taken away and prepared for the rest of the meal.  It was excellent!!

I have many more crazy stories of travels in Asia such as being arrested for suspected drug trafficking, being chased by heroin gangs, earthquakes, eating dog, typhoons, Vietnam airlines in the early days - if you want to hear them, poke me back.

As a side note, I've been watching some of the other episodes of Gordon Ramsay traveling through the back-blocks of Asia and I must say that the way he talks to and treats the locals is terrible.  Surely someone is coaching him on some of that stuff.  I know he goes for shock value but his actions and fowl language would be quite offensive to many.