Snake soup in cooking varies from place to place but water snake and python snake are popular choices. Chinese cobra, Banded krait, Indo-Chinese Rat Snake, Tri-rope beauty snake and Hundred-pace viper are commonly used in snake soups. At many restaurants that serve snake soups, customers are able to choose, according to their preference, live snakes to be prepared. Snake meat is light pink in color. On a par with fish, snake meat tastes much richer and is chewier than the former. Ramy Inocencio of CNN describes that "Minced dark mushrooms, finely julienned chicken, fragrant chopped ginger and other herbs and spices fill
Snake wine venom poses no threat to the drinker. It is denatured by the ethanol—its proteins are unfolded and therefore inactive— and would be denatured by stomach acid anyway. The Huaxi street night market (華西街夜市) of Taipei, Taiwan, is renowned for its snake foods and wine products. There are two main types of snake wine, which utilize either parts of a live snake, or the entire snake itself. Snakes and their tissue portions have long been considered by followers of Traditional Chinese medicine to be invaluable for the promotion of vitality and health. The drink was first recorded to be used in