Why Pizza Hut In Hong Kong Is Serving Snake Pizza

There are certain unusual meats you need to try before you die, and Pizza Hut in Hong Kong is taking steps to help you knock at least one of them off your list. According to CNN, the restaurant released its newest pizza: a combination of shredded snake meat, black mushrooms, and Chinese dried ham. "Paired with cheese and diced chicken, the snake meat becomes richer in taste," a statement released by the franchise read, along with the suggestion that snake meat is nourishing and can boost blood circulation.

For those who live in southern China and Hong Kong, it's not uncommon at all for people to consume snake meat, whether in the popular snake stew dish that was the inspiration for this pizza or on its own. In Vietnam, Thailand, and sections of Southeast Asia, snakes are farmed specifically for their meat. The high collagen in snake meat is believed to help with joint flexibility and to make your immune system stronger. Nutritionally, snake meat is full of essential amino acids and protein.

For more than 100 years, snake stew has been used to reap all the medicinal benefits of snake meat. By using the same ingredients for a pizza, Hong Kong's Pizza Hut is trying to appeal to lingering affection for the once-popular dish, as well as to bring it into the modern world and acquaint more people with it.

The Hong Kong Pizza Hut, which has been franchised by Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd. since 1987, is partnering with Central Hong Kong restaurant Ser Wong Fun to make its Snake Pizza. Ser Wong Fun are experts when it comes to cooking snakes, having first opened in 1895. According to Hong Kong Pizza Hut's general manager, Karen Chan, Ser Wong Fun helped the restaurant come up with the pizza recipe by using a combination of Chinese rat snakes, banded kraits, and white banded snakes, and says, "The extraordinary snake pizzas offer a perfect balance to all flavors, both tantalizing and savory for this season." But Pizza Hut is not stopping there. Along with the Snake Pizza, Hong Kong's Pizza Hut plans to soon present another pizza that mixes in local tradition, one that is made with Chinese preserved sausages commonly eaten in a claypot rice dish. 

There are many foods that you wouldn't have the chance to try unless you travel to another part of the world, and Pizza Hut seems determined to put all of them on a pizza, at least for a limited time. In New Zealand you could find a marmite-stuffed crust. In Canada, you can order a pizza with poutine topping. Pizza Hut Singapore once offered an intriguing combination of cornflakes, pumpkin paste, taro, and pineapple, and back in Hong Kong again, at one time you could find a crust stuffed with fish eggs and cream cheese.