THIS WINE HAS A BITE TO IT

Posted on 11/24/2015

A certain sect of the tourism industry is rearing an ugly head. On white linen table cloths, no less. The world isn’t just watching, it is setting the table, and bringing out wine goblets and some people are making a killing.

North Americans are familiar with the plight of sharks whose fins are hacked off, leaving the rest of the beast to die in the oceans. The bludgeoning is solely to garnish a $300 bowl of soup! Municipalities in North America are trying to pass bylaws to obliterate this dish from menus.

Yet, in spite of the alarming decline in shark populations around the world, this practice continues. It makes you wish that the animals could fight back.

Maybe they can…

In the 700s (Chinese Tang Dynasty) it was discovered that putting a snake into a vat of wine was helpful in clearing skin diseases for those who drank the wine. To this day parts of Asia treat snake wine as an anti-inflammatory agent.

A few years ago a Chinese woman was suffering from arthritis. She was told to stuff a live viper into some rice wine, let it ferment for a couple of months, then drink the liquid. When she opened the bottle the snake came slithering out and bit her on the hand. To be fair, she did in fact have a slight remission from arthritic pain.

In Vietnam snake wine is popular among tourist markets. Rows of rice wine with ferocious looking vipers, cobras and scorpions jammed into them (many while they are still alive) are sold as aphrodisiacs. A good number of the species used for this virility elixir are endangered.

In some cases the blood of a snake is drained and poured into a glass for immediate consumption or mixed with alcohol as a cocktail. The venom of a poisonous snake is only deadly once it is in the bloodstream. If you are drinking it, there is only danger of gagging.

Eating snakes is considered a delicacy in south China, but it is not without peril. They often carry parasites and infections that can be passed on if they are not cooked properly. The risk however is not a deterrent.

Sometimes the danger lies in the preparation of the meal itself. Last year, a chef named Peng Fan from Guangdong China was chopping up an Indochinese spitting cobra to make soup. About 20 minutes after cutting up the reptile, he picked up the head to throw it in the garbage and the serpent’s fangs injected him with a fast acting venom which killed him instantly.

The Japanese love their Fugu. The puffer fish is revered even though the ovaries, skin, muscles and liver may be deadly (1,200 times stronger than cyanide). One fish is capable of killing about 30 adults. Yet it is eaten in volumes that have now jeopardize the Fugu population.

You have to wonder how far we will go to profit from slaughtering endangered animals … when there are clearly so many people dying to eat them.