From CNN:
American company Pizza Hut has teamed up with a century-old Hong Kong restaurant to put a modern spin on a traditional dish, or more simply, snake on a pizza.
The new offering combines shredded snake meat, black mushrooms and Chinese dried ham – all indispensable ingredients of an authentic snake stew and part of the Hong Kong franchise’s marketing plot to generate buzz online.
Some diners in Hong Kong and around southern China have long enjoyed snake stew, especially during the colder months.
According to a saying in the local Cantonese dialect, the best time to eat snake is “when the autumn wind begins to blow” – when they’ve fattened up to prepare for hibernation.
Many believe that snake meat has medicinal properties, improving skin conditions and warming up the body.
A rich culinary culture based on snakes is common across other parts of Southeast Asia too, such as Vietnam and Thailand, where snakes are usually farmed for consumption.
“Paired with cheese and diced chicken, the snake meat becomes richer in taste,” Pizza Hut Hong Kong said in a statement before the dish went on sale last week, adding that the “nourishing” meat “can boost blood circulation” – a common belief in traditional Chinese medicine.
“Combined with pizza, it marks a breakthrough from the conventional concept of what maintaining good health means while challenging one’s taste buds,” it added.
I'm not sure about this. The CNN staff claims that the snake tastes and feels like 'dried chicken.' Well, I can tell you this—I definitely wouldn't opt for a 'dry chicken' topping on my pizza, so this is a hard pass for me. But what do you think?
