Eating our way through the adventure...

Sometimes there are times in your life when you just have to. There's not really any reason not to, and it's fun to say you have. Like tonight. There's a great new couple here at our school, Brock and Lisa, and they're into truly experiencing the local culture. Since he's arrived, he's wanted to eat at a snake restaurant. Originally I thought the guy was pretty nuts--"unique" is a good word--and then I started to think about it. Why not? People eat weird stuff all of the time, and seriously, what a great thing to be able to tell my grandkids! In fact, I have an uncle, Uncle Ken, who traveled to Indonesia in the '80s, and during his trip to Sumatera, ate snake. I remember him telling me that it tastes just 'like chicken.' I thought he was really cool. Tonight, we learned that snake really DOES taste like chicken, at least cobra does, and it specifically tastes like chicken breast. Alligator does as well, although I found it a bit sour. Monitor lizard has the texture and slight flavour of fish, monkey is a sweeter meat, and python is a bit 'chewy,' like crab. Brock was the only one who tried bat (flying rats, who eats those???). He also topped off his personal adventure with a cup of cobra blood mixed with the cobra's bile and a little chinese wine. He said it tasted a little bitter. I'll take his word for it.

In the photo of Tris and I, he is trying monitor lizard and I am trying cobra (fried). Of all the items, the cobra won the award at our table for the item we'd most likely order again. It's

rather morbid, really, because it's the cobra that we met personally before he became our dinner. It was a bit like the proverbial bunny that the farmer's daughter names and spends time with, and then one day realizes Fluffy is in her soup (or chicken cacciatore, remember Mom??).

We started our dining adventure out by picking up Brock, Lisa and their little 1 1/2 year old, Bethany, and headed for Jakarta. On the way, we got a little lost in "Old Town" (old Dutch part of Jakarta) and were able to see a little of the older landscape outside of the car when Bethany decided that throwing up on her mom was the best way to get rid of the ache in her little tummy. Once Lisa was as clean as 3 baby-wipes, a bottle of ice-cold water and a purse pack of tissues could get her, we continued on until we reached "Istana Raja Cobra (King Cobra Palace) Restaurant." It literally is a hole in the wall with about 8 small plastic tables, a kitchen smaller than most suburbian clothes closets, and a 'snake room' at the back. I have to admit, though, it was a lot brighter and cleaner than I had imagined. The restaurant, I mean, not the snake room.

Meet 'Fluffy,' our dinner-to-be. After we placed our order (bat & alligator satay, fried cobra, fried monkey, fried monitor lizard, and bbq'd python), we headed to the back to pick our cobra. All of the other items on the menu were "pre-dead" and in the freezer, but unfortunately for

this dish, he was as fresh as they come. The most interesting thing that Tris and I noticed weren't the cages along the wall holding other diners' meal choices (green snake, 'earth' snake, a variety of other snakes), but rather the moving canvas bags on the floor. In these bags, which were hissing and rising up towards our voices, were King Cobras, and even through the bags I'm sure they could smell my fear. While we were watching the bags at our feet, our attendant was prepping the snake. It all happened quite quickly as the fellow showed us our snake choice, lopped off his head, hooked the body to the wall and slid the skin off the reptile. During the skinning, the head continued to move and the tongue to hiss. Very freaky. So very 'not me.'

Once we received our meat dishes, we shared them around and took photos, commented on the taste and texture, and finally realized that during our meal, little Bethany had drawn a lovely crayon masterpiece on the nearby table's plastic yellow chair. Rather squiggley lines, like snakes. How appropriate.

I'm not sure that a return visit to this restaurant will ever happen, unless our kids want to go (they were too busy swimming and watching movies to come along this time) or we have visitors who want the same 'unique' experience, but I admit, I am glad to be able to say I DID.

Thanks for reading.

...this is a little different from the new Bread & Butter Cooking Club that was born last week...new post to come full of delicious details!