Cobra soup is a Cantonese delicacy that contains the meat of snakes, including cobra snakes.
The meat of snakes including cobra snakes in cobra soup is also combined with other ingredients like ham, chicken, mushrooms as well as various herbs and spices.
Cobra soup is a type of snake soup and is primarily eaten in Hong Kong and Southern China, especially during the fall and winter seasons.
Cobra soup is considered a warming and nourishing dish that is also believed to have medicinal properties.
The cobra soup broth is made by boiling of snake bones with other animal bones and chicken, with the shredded snake meat added to the thickened and flavorful broth.
Various snake meats, often including cobra snake meat are used and chicken meat is often added to cobra soup or snake soup as a filler meat.
The broth for cobra soup is made from boiling bones of pork, chicken and snakes.
And ginger, black mushrooms and citrus peels are common additions to cobra soup for flavor and aroma.
Thickeners such as cornstarch slurry or flour are used to thicken cobra soup.
And shredded lemon leaves, fried dough strips and even chrysanthemum petals are often served with cobra soup.
To prepare cobra soup the snake meat is first separated from the bones and then shredded by hand.
Then the bones from the snake, chicken and pork are simmered for several hours, which creates the rich broth.
The broth is then strained, then simmered with the shredded snake meat, chicken and other ingredients and the soup is thickened with a starch slurry.
Once done the cobra soup is served hot with garnishes like fried dough, spices and lemon leaves.