Hong Kong Eat: Snake King Dee (蛇王弟) Snake Stew @ Jordan

Snake King Dee (蛇王弟), located along Shanghai Street in Yau Ma Tei, is one of few restaurants in Hong Kong that still serves traditional snake stew. Believed to be a warming food during winter, snake stew has similar benefits as mutton soup and ginger duck stew (姜母鸭) — for me, it is more of the thrill to try the exotic dish.

Snake King Dee serves more than just snake stew, there are many more other dishes, such as steamed fishes, curry beef tongue, pork chop rice, steamed chicken rice, etc. Other than Snake Soup with Meat (蛇羹), there is Snake Soup (蛇汤) on the menu too but without the snake meat.

Among the numerous printouts of food item pasted on the walls, one printout stands out. It seems that IShowSpeed, an American YouTuber, had patronised Snake King Dee to try its snake stew — with very excited expressions.

The signature Snake Soup with Meat (蛇羹) — although commonly translated as "snake soup", the dish is more of a light, starchy stew rather than watery soup — is served with several types of snake meat, black fungus, mushrooms, etc, stewed for hours in starchy broth. It is nice-tasting, not overly starchy and without any gamey taste.

Snake meat has similar texture as chicken meat — perhaps slightly chewier — and does not carry any characteristic smell nor taste. The primary difference in appearance is the different colours of the shredded meat from different snakes — typically from 2~5 types of snake, such as Chinese cobras, banded kraits and various rat snakes (info. from Google).

Snake Stew is best paired with Sausage Sticky Rice (腊味糯米饭), which is also available as a set on the menu. The sticky rice is cooked with small cuts of Chinese sausage that give the oil-smoothened glutinous rice a mellow-sweet aroma and flavour. Topped with whole crunchy peanuts and coriander, the sticky rice is delicious and definitely a must to go with snake stew or other dishes.

When the winter is cold, a bowl of hot snake stew and tasty sticky rice at Snake King Dee is most welcoming.

Address:

209 Shanghai Street, Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong

Opening Hours:

11am to 11pm | Daily

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