Donghua Men "Snack Street" (2): Food Challenge #1... Snake Skin!

Sure, its a bit strange that in a place filled with ancient culture and historic treasures I am fixated on my food challenges, but I blame it on all the travel/food shows where they challenge the host to eat crazy stuff.  But I think that, if the local culture eats it, I'll give it a try.  Especially if it gives me a chance to shock the audience a bit ;)

The hardest part was choosing.  Here are some of the more tame offerings...

This looks a little more interesting.  Squid,  and ... are those crayfish? 

Beautiful and probably very tasty, but I had to choose carefully, since I only had a limited time here (my BF was not having as much fun with this as I was and it was very crowded).  But finally I saw my first choice...

Snake skin!  Aside from making creepy western wear, they can apparently be a good snack.  

Honestly, it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad.  It was very oily and a bit ... scaly, but overall not bad.  I figured I eat eel, so why not snake?

Here's how they cook it on the grill.  They press it under a hot iron, fanning it with a paper fan:

Posing with my snake skin kebab... and trusty Flip Video camera, on which I recorded this video of me eating the snake skin!

Click here for the YouTube video.