(MM) FWD from AAD: Far East tradquacks slaughter slitherers

[Guest guest]

By VIJAY JOSHI

Associated Press Writer

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Traditional medicines take various forms in

various places. In Southeast Asia they can be scaly, slithering and

venomous-at least while they are alive.

The blood, bile and flesh of snakes have long provided popular remedies

for a range of ailments among rural folk in Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

While the efficacy of the purported cures is far from proven, business is

booming at a rooftop restaurant in Myanmar's capital that serves

reptile-based concoctions and snake meat cooked in its open-air kitchen.

" Snake (meat) is good for the nervous system. Its bile is good for the

liver, " claims U Tin, owner of the Roof Top Seafood Restaurant, popular not

only among locals but also visiting Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean

businessmen and tourists.

" Those who drink too much and smoke too much eat the bile as it helps

cleanse the toxic matter from the liver, " he added.

Wildlife officials worry the trade could be a threat to the survival of

snake species but don't have the funds for research to check.

" Snake medicines is not a fad. It is quite a big business. It is a

tradition, " said Eric Coull, the Worldwide Fund for Nature representative

for Indochina, based in Hanoi, Vietnam. " It is one of those things. People

believe snake is good for the health. "

At U Tin's restaurant, squeamish diners prefer to sit at the tables while

the more adventurous like to watch their dinner's preparation. They pick

their meal from a sandpit cage and watch it cut, quartered and boiled. The

menu includes snakes such as krait, viper, cobra and python.

An apothecary in a corner of the restaurant displays glass vats

containing snake heads, snake penises and entire snakes pickled in rice

alcohol. The " snake wine " is pumped out by plastic tube and sold for 200

kyats (35 cents) a shot.

The restaurant, which also serves eel, fish and lobster, is on top of the

Theingyi Zei, the biggest and dingiest market in Yangon. As U Tin's visiting

card points out, it offers " Fresh Air. Fresh Food. Pagoda View, " a reference

to the Shwedagon Pagoda, a huge gold plated Buddhist temple on a hill that

is Myanmar's most popular tourist spot.

On a recent visit, taxi driver Tin Maung Oo, his wife, son and

mother-in-law keenly followed the proceedings in assistant chef Win Hlaing's

pantry.

Win Hlaing began by dipping a tong into a wooden cage and extricating a

writhing branded krait for inspection. Tin Maung Oo and his family

unanimously shook their head. Too skinny, they said.

Out came another, about one meter (3 feet) long. " Oh yes, that's a good

one, " said Tin Maung Oo, 46, dressed in a longyi, or sarong, and a baseball

cap.

The price tag was 2,500 kyats (dlrs 4), a princely sum in a country where

university professors earn just earn 6,000 kyats (dlrs 12) a month. Tin

Maung Oo got a discount of 500 kyat (80 cents) because his family intended

to cook the snake at home.

Gripping the reptile with two tongs-one crushing down its head and the

other holding its body-Win Hlaing placed it on a chopping block. Too dazed

to move, the snake lay still. Seconds later, Win Hlaing brought a chopper

down, severing the head.

Quickly, he dangled the snake over a glass half filled with alcohol and

squeezed out the blood as if from a giant toothpaste tube. The crimson

liquid was poured into one plastic bag while the snake was stuffed into

another, still wriggling from involuntary nervous stimulus.

Tin Maung Oo said his mother-in-law, visiting from her village, had a

craving for snake meat, being a regular snake eater. He said it was also a

good opportunity to introduce his son to the meat.

At home, they planned to cut the snake into three or four pieces, boil

them for an hour, strip the skin, remove the entrails and separate the

flesh, which would then be cooked with onions, chilies and oil.

" It tastes like chicken, " Tin Maung Oo said.

Win Hlaing said the restaurant serves 15 to 30 snakes daily, bought every

week from professional snake catchers in jungle and river villages. The

restaurant also exports dried and powdered snakes to customers abroad.

" The first time I killed and cooked a snake I was afraid. But now I have

no feelings, " said Win Hlaing, 19.

He recommends drinking the blood immediately after the slaughter when it

is still warm.

" It smells a bit strange and becomes sticky and thick after a half-hour.

But you can mix it with alcohol to keep it longer " he said.