Off the Beaten Palate: Snake wine and other medicinal liquors
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It can be all too easy to stick to your culinary comfort zone in Shanghai, be it KFC or gōngbǎo jīdīng. As a challenge to break these habits and avoid the rut, every few weeks Shanghaiist will explore one of the more intriguing options out of China's endless array of curious cookery. Although bizarre to most Western palates, these oft-avoided edibles usually boast unique medicinal properties, nutritional benefits, and intriguing culinary histories. We'll explore for you where they came from and where you can sample these rare eats for yourselves.
Suffering from erectile dysfunction? Drink 25 milliliters of snake and deer ***** liquor once a day. That's just one of the exotic wine prescriptions in the more than one thousand-year-old Chinese pharmacopeia, Sheng Nong's Herbal Classic. Despite being called "wines," Chinese animal liquors were traditionally used as medicines and not social lubricants, with hundreds of varieties for every ailment imaginable, set dosages, and even side effects.
Even today, people don't treat them as hocus-pocus. My friend and snake maven Mr. Hu believes so strongly in snake and deer ***** wine that he was hesitant to cough it up, just like a pharmacy would be if a 20-something asked for Viagra. And no way was I having a second shot of it. He even asked if I'd drunk other snake liquors within the past week. Again, much like a doctor asking if you're on medication during a check-up.
China boasts hundreds of exotic animal wines from monkey to pangolin, that animal that looks an anteater mated with an artichoke. We'll stick with the equally exotic, but less taboo tipples for this article.
Deer antler (lùróngjiǔ, 鹿茸酒)
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You've probably encountered these at Asian medicinal markets without even realizing it. Tan, velvety, and circular the slices are often mistaken for dried mushrooms. You can buy them in bunches and boil them in tea to help your joints, improve circulation, and supposedly make you "*****." For the latter effect, you're better off consuming them in paired with ginseng in baijiu. Unlike deer antler, ginseng has been scientifically proven to strengthen your own "deer antler." You can find deer antler and ginseng wine at Jackie's Beer Nest for 45RMB a shot. It tastes essentially like baijiu, but mustier, as if decaying leaves were tossed in. The apothecary advises no more than 25 milliliters a day.
Jackie's Beer Nest // 76 Zhaozhou Lu, near Dongtai Lu (肇周路76号, 近东台路). Tel: 138-1650-2260. Hours: 5-11pm.
Snake bile wine (shédǎnjiǔ, 蛇胆酒)
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Swamp green with an iridescent tinge, you could easily see vials of this stuff being touted by a bayou-dwelling witch doctor with skull face paint. The elixir is a mixture of baijiu and bile from snake gallbladders, which often come bobbing about in the same flask as the liquor. They resemble fleshy gray-blue pills. Drinking 25ml of this elixir once a day is said to improve eyesight and reduce inflammation. Not gonna lie, knocking back a tumbler evoked downing formaldehyde that a toad had been sitting in, and was one of the most vile things I've ever tasted. 10RMB per shot.
Dahushedao (大胡蛇岛) // 222 Kangding Road, near Jiangning Road (康定路222号, 近江宁路) // Closest Metro Stop: Changping Road (昌平路) Line 7.
Deer ***** wine (lùbiānjiǔ, 鹿鞭酒)
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This holy sex grail didn't resemble anything too extraordinary at first glance, just a drum of swamp detritus. Then Mr. Hu grabbed the head of what looked like a plant stalk and pulled. And I saw it. It was about 8 inches long and brown. And that was just the nozzle. As he pulled, lengths and lengths of it uncoiled from the container like a gasoline hose from its holster. If this was indeed an aphrodisiac, it could probably help you penetrate kevlar. To help enhance its effects, like with deer antler, deer ***** is often paired with ginseng in an aphrodisiac speedball. At Dahushedao, it usually sword fights with smaller snake *****es in a jar. A shot runs you 35RMB. It tastes similar to deer antler wine and allegedly benefits middle aged and older men, who should take it in 20-25ml doses once a day. You can also try the version at Jackie's Beer Nest, which comes with lizard and snake and costs 45RMB.
Dahushedao (大胡蛇岛) // 222 Kangding Road, near Jiangning Road (康定路222号, 近江宁路) // Closest Metro Stop: Changping Road (昌平路) Line 7, OR Jackie's Beer Nest // 76 Zhaozhou Lu, near Dongtai Lu (肇周路76号, 近东台路). Tel: 138-1650-2260. Hours: 5-11pm.
Three Snake Wine (sānzhòngshéjiǔ, 三种蛇酒)
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As the legend goes, a Tang Dynasty emperor (AD 618-907) lost his appetite and tried every known remedy to regain it, but to no avail. Only after consuming a certain robust snake bearing markings similar to his imperial stamps, did his hunger return. The exuberant emperor decreed that locals living in the region of Hunan where the miracle serpent dwelled would be exempt from taxes if they captured a snake, a ruling that eventually depleted the population. Nowadays, the snake, the Hunan pit viper, remains confined to a few forest patches in Hunan province.
The specimen Mr. Hu showed me was captured 15 years ago and was as thick as a speed skater's calf (above left). Few attain that size anymore, and hunting them is now illegal. No one's ever proved the Hunan viper to be an appetite stimulant, but it does have purported health properties best observed when it's paired with banded krait and Zaocys snake in a tonic called "three snake wine."
The viper most famously speeds up blood clotting, healing your wounds faster alla Wolverine - a belief stemming from the fact that when the viper bites you, your blood coagulates. Of course, if you take it on its own, you can experience side effects like overheating and sores. The Zaocys snake serves to depress these effects, while the krait helps prevent paralysis. All three in conjunction allegedly aid the joints.
Mr. Hu points out that, like with wine or whiskey, the older the vintage the more prized it is. The alcohol content dwindles over time but the health effects become stronger. Unfortunately so does the funk factor, making it taste like baijiu with notes of pond scum. Mr. Hu recommends taking 20-25ml once a day, which'll set you back 50RMB. Just don't drink if you're already taking snake bile liquor, or you'll apparently break out in mouth ulcers.
Dahushedao (大胡蛇岛) // 222 Kangding Road, near Jiangning Road (康定路222号, 近江宁路) // Closest Metro Stop: Changping Road (昌平路) Line 7.
Our verdict
Health tonics with deer ***** and snake bile might sound like witches brew- might as well throw in "eye of newt," right? But while they don't always align with modern science (though they often do), they're based in a scholarship as rich and complex as you'll find in any Western medical journal. Not to mention they allow you to strike both snake and deer ***** off your culinary bucket list without having to wolf all 20 inches of either one.