Drinking snake oil...
 

Well...not snake oil, but Vietnamese snake wine. I went to my friend's parents' house for his engagement party this past weekend and his dad had a bottle at his bar. I first heard of snake wine on Taboo.

The bottle I drank from had a small (baby?) cobra with what appeared to be a garter snake in it's mouth, and some type of root in it. It tasted like a VERY strong Sake with a strange aftertaste that wasn't very good. I had to try it though!

Japanese drink stuff like this too. They use a snake called a "mamushi" and it is very poisonous. The older the drink, the more money it fetches. They also use the skin from them to heal cuts. Sounds like hogswash to me. Oh, that and I don't eat/drink things that are known to contain deadly poison. Err, scratch that... I drink the accepted poisons like wine and beer every day... whoops. Dancing with the devil as they say...

It's been said that the venom of a Cobra can pass through the digestive system of a healthy person with little if any noticeable ill effect. HOWEVER, a cut in the mouth or a bad ulcer can be a recipe for an ER/Mortuary visit.