The Legend of the Boxer Wrangler and the Beating Cobra Heart

After finishing up our Bia Hoi session with the locals, we flagged down a cab and asked the driver to take us to Le Mat village (10 minutes east of central Hanoi on the other side of the Red River). We knew that this place was famous for a unique type of cuisine...

When we stepped out of the taxi we were greeted by a guy our age who immediately snagged two 6-foot cobras out of a cage and began playing with them. We can't remember his name, but we affectionately refer to him as the Boxer Wrangler for his fearless/crazy handling of these lethal snakes in just a t-shirt and boxer shorts. The snakes would repeatedly strike at his face and neck, and we were all a bit nervous at this point. Adrenaline was truly pumping during the entire time in "Snake Village," as the Le Mat community is known.


Our hostel manager in Hanoi had told us that a whole snake would run us about 800,000 Vietnamese dong (VND). The Boxer Wrangler told us that they would kill the two cobras and prepare 10 different dishes for us. However, this was going to cost us 3,500,000 VND! This is the equivalent of about $200. We told him that we had already eaten and weren't that hungry, and that we just wanted to try some snake. We tried to negotiate the price and told him we didn't have that much money, but he would not budge, saying that catching these deadly snakes is very dangerous and that they have to charge a premium. The Boxer Wrangler maintained that we could maybe get a different snake (a non-cobra) for about 800,000 VND, but that this place only sold cobras and that cobra was a much tastier snake than other kinds. He also said that they cannot cook part of a snake - once they kill it they cook the whole thing and they only sell whole snakes at their restaurant (something which made sense to us). After pooling all the money we had together we were able to come up with something close to 3,500,000 VND in a dollar-dong hybrid payment.

While we were talking to the Boxer Wrangler about the price of our cobra, a Vietnamese family of about 10 people came into the restaurant. The Boxer Wrangler, who was the only person at this family-run restaurant who spoke any English, kept telling us that this was a very rich man. He said that this man was a president for one of the biggest banks in Vietnam, and sounded very proud to tell us that he only eats at their restaurant and comes in 5 times a month to eat King Cobra. "He is very rich man, that is why he can afford king cobra." A 6-8 foot King Cobra sells for a cool $8,000,000 VND (about $450). To put this in perspective, the average meal in Hanoi goes for about $1.20 and the workers in the rice fields withstand back-breaking labor in the humid 95 deg. F weather for less than $ 0.15 an hour. This Vietnamese banker was truly a high-roller... Petey or Jeremy in 5 years perhaps???

The restaurant had an 18 kg king cobra on mounted on the wall which had been preserved for 25 years. It was an impressive beast, and Jeremy cringed more than once as he looked up and was met by this venomous monster's gazing stare.


Back to the cobra negotiations...

***NOTE: THE FOLLOWING STORY IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. KEEP READING AT YOUR OWN RISK...

After coughing up the 3.5 million VND for the cobra, the Boxer Wrangler took the live snake and made a small slit in what I guess would be the equivalent of its throat/chest region, and drained the cobra's blood into a pre-prepared glass of Vietnamese rice wine (calling it "wine" really doesn't do it justice, this is more like vodka, at 40%+ alcohol and a ruthless burning sensation as it goes down). He then made a small cut in the snake and pulled out its still beating heart, which he placed in a shot glass filled with rice wine. Next, he made another small slit in the snake's underbelly and pulled out its gall bladder. He drained the cobra's bile into a second glass full of rice wine. We were then led to the table, where we sat staring at a glass full of red liquid, a glass full of bright green liquid, and a shot glass with a beating cobra heart in it.


The Boxer Wrangler poured us a shot each of the snake blood drink. There was some serious tension in the air, with not much talking going on around the dinner table as we anxiously anticipated what was to come. The first dish was a cobra soup. The rich Vietnamese banker, who must have been very entertained by the sight of four terrified Westerners about to embark on the snake eating/blood drinking journey (especially when the party includes a terrifying 6'5" Norse God with flowing blond locks), raised his shot glass of King Cobra blood to us in a toast, and the rest of his family followed suit. At this point, we could not delay taking the shots any longer, and we raised our shot glasses in response, and then threw back this lovely combination of blood, venom, and strong alcohol (this will certainly put some hair on your chest... even if you're a hairless being like Petey).


The cobra soup was followed by stir-fried cobra, fried cobra, fried cobra-skin, cobra spring rolls, fried cobra spring rolls, cobra ceviche, cobra foie gras, sticky rice with cobra fat, and another type of cobra soup.


The consensus was that the stir-fried cobra dish, cobra foie gras, and the fried cobra were the two best dishes. After a few more shots of cobra blood, the red glass was empty. We were now facing the ominous bright green glass. There was definitely some reluctance at this point. "There is an elephant in the room," Guider accurately stated. We poured our bile shots and threw them back. This drink definitely had a stronger flavor, and we all grimaced as the green liquid made its way down to our stomachs.


It was then time for legends. Cometh the moment, cometh the man. Jeremy stepped up to the plate to take the shot of rice wine with the whole cobra heart in it. No need to describe it, check out the video below:



Post-game commentary from Jeremy: Thanks for calling me out on not being adventurous, pops. I felt this was the only way I could outdo my 10 year old sister who was in Vietnam last year and ate crickets, kangaroo and other interesting dishes. Anyhow, if you pay attention you can actually pinpoint when I swallow the heart. First, I took the shot and only the rice wine went down. At this point, I realized there was a beating cobra heart in my mouth and either it was going down soon or it plus a whole lot more was coming back up. I choked it down before giving the issue too much thought, but feeling a beating heart on my tongue definitely made it a struggle... "I just kept telling myself you can do this, you can do this and I went out there and gave it my all. And you know what? I did it. I really left it all out there that night. Mom, Dad, you should be proud. So, that's really all there was - it was 80% mental 30% physical..." But seriously, I found out that the only way to make rice wine seem smooth is by putting a beating cobra heart in it.

The Boxer Wrangler told us that the children in the village are taught to catch harmless snakes when they are 5 years old. As they get older, they start catching bigger and more dangerous snakes. That way, when they are 16-18 they have already been dealing with snakes for many years and can begin to catch cobras and other poisonous snakes. He added that every year, 10-12 people in the village die while trying to catch cobras. Also, we were informed that many of the villagers have had fingers amputated as a result of being bitten by cobras (actually, Petey had noticed that the Boxer Wrangler's dad was missing a finger). Comically, the Boxer Wrangler told us that even his girlfriend is well-trained in the art of snake catching. Naturally, we asked if she specialized in wrangling the one-eyed snake or perhaps the trouser snake, but they must not be indigenous to this region because he had no clue what we were referring to. The Boxer Wrangler claimed that if you are bitten by a king cobra, you will die in less than 5 minutes if you do not get antidote. Luckily, there were no casualties on this night... After dinner we headed back to our hostel in central Hanoi and went to sleep. Everyone was exhausted after the long day.