When it comes to culinary experiences, taste can vary widely. What one person finds to be enjoyable and worth a sumptuous delicacy, another can find it unpalatable and weird to taste. The adage, one man's food is another man's poison rings especially true for my experience with eating snakes. Most people I have seen have expressed their dissatisfaction with this meat that they vow that it is over their dead body would they ever taste such a meat.
While it may seem odd or exotic to some just like my amazing friend @nkemakonam89 who finds it weird to eat such, she even mentioned that she can never eat dog meat else, she might start barking 😄 this is a meat I have eaten when I was a little girl but decided never to taste it again and that is a decision I have stood on for many years.
Coming back to snake meat, I find it enjoyable and also fascinating to explore such different cuisines together with other meat like pigs.
I was exposed to eating snake meat when I was a young girl. My mom made me love the meat that I used to watch out for snakes around the area and when I came across any, I quickly call the guys around my area and they would kill it, unknown to them, I would have beckoned on my mother to come over so she could bribe the guys with some money in exchange for the dead snake and that was how things were happening in our vicinity.
Where we lived was a bushy area that wasn't developed until work started years after. So, everywhere was filled with bushes and we were always told to be careful when walking at night because of snakes and other dangerous insects or animals. With us being careful, I was always on the watch out for snakes and always ready to call the guys around, also my mother's attention so she could be aware of what was going on. We bought our way through bribing the guys in the neighbourhood whenever they killed a snake.
It got to a point, where my mom had to make friends with the guys and told them to always remember her whenever they killed a snake especially when I wouldn't be around to know what had happened. What do we do with the snake, you may ask?
My Dad was working in the city of Lagos as at that time while we lived in another part of the state which wasn't far from Lagos, calculating the journey is an hour and thirty minutes and it goes beyond that when there is traffic. Those who know Mowe in Ogun State will understand how the distance isn't that far. My dad goes to work in the morning and returns, most times late at night. He doesn't return alone, he comes along with a keg and other times, 2 kegs of pure palm wine, he has a friend who made it available for him.
When the snake had been killed, mom would call my daddy on the phone and say a phrase in my tribe which is "Obey, bush meat has landed. Do the needful" Obey is the name everyone calls my dad because of his love for the popular Nigerian juju musician, Ebenezer Obey. Whenever my mom said the word, he would laugh and hail her on the phone, and the needful was to bring palm wine while coming home.
Such a night always goes well with the family as my dad would top the generator with fuel and we put it on serving us light till midnight when we would be enjoying ourselves with snake meat and palm wine. It was always a night of joy and excitement for the family and one we would always want to experience every time.
Remembering those moments always brings me happiness, reminiscing how life with my mother was then. It has been years since I have tasted snake meat and wish I could eat it again soonest or someday but that experience is something I will never forget. It made my childhood days more fascinating and wonderful.
Thanks for your time reading. Looking forward to your interaction.
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