[jackbl]

Alcohol soaked animals: The champ is here!
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It seems that Vietnam is second-to-none in terms of soaked alcohols. Vietnamese put almost everything in alcohol, from vegetables to animals.

This is the conclusion of back-packing expatriates after a trip to Vietnam. More impressively, there are countless articles referring to Vietnamese soaked alcohols in Google when you type “animals in alcohol”.

“The westerners? They are mediocre!”

In a trip to America, my cousin took me to a bar and said: “There are many unique Mexican types of liquor here and the most famous is Mezcal, only Mexicans can drink this while Americans only stop and stare!” What is Mezcal actually? My cousin revealed that they immerse worms in the alcohol.

As a liquor collector, I sought to purchase such strange liquid. Ultimately I got three small bottles – a black, a red and a white! After spending some time on Google, I finally figured out that Mezcal is simply the larvae of a kind of common moth in Oaxaca (Mexico), whose scientific name is Hypopta Agavis.

Mexicans put these worms into alcohol just to make the liquid good-looking and slightly fragrant.

Only China can compare with Vietnam in producing soaked alcohol, yet the big neighbor can only produce things like bear’s paw, tiger bone glue and deer’s or porcupine’s fetuses submerged in alcohol. The most famous are the alcohol soaked three-day-old mice. According to herbalist Vo Ha, such concoctions appear both in China and Korea.

According to Asylum.com – a British entertainment website – Vietnamese people are very “highly” regarded as masters in terms of producing snake wine and relishing alcohol blended with snake blood.

To the western world, soaking animals in alcohol is seen as a taboo in culture, in lifestyle and even in legislation. In 2008, the American press reported the case of Bob Popplewell – who was arrested for making 411 jars of alcohol soaked rattlesnake. He was finally imprisoned for massacring animals.

Westerners do enjoy soaked alcohol, yet they prefer plants over animals. For instance, in Russia, people have very famous Horseradish Vodka and Pickle Vodka. And the king of soaked alcohol is Chartreuse in Isere (France), created by pastors and produced by immersing more than 130 different types of herbs in alcohol.

Vietnam is number one

After this trip I’ve learned that other countries can’t compare with Vietnam in terms of producing soaked alcohol.

Indeed, Vietnamese love to infuse different things in alcohol, from plants to animals. Snake, coucal, seahorse, tiger bone glue, bear’s paw, velvet antler. The Northern highlands of Vietnam have the famous worm wine. The Military Institute of Traditional Medicine has conducted comprehensive research on this type of worm and concluded that the worm wine provides health benefits for both men and women. A few years ago, this delicacy was still unfamiliar to Southern people, but now it is easy to find in any traditional restaurant in the Tan Son Nhat area, with the price of couples of thousands dongs for a bottle of 250 milliliters.

Another rare wine of Quang Ninh province is made with ngan, a local oyster.

Talking about alcohol soaked plants, the story is endless: chuoi hot – a specialty of Ben Tre province, wild downy rose myrtle, mo qua – a type of liana from Kien Giang province, ba kich – a king of roots from Quang Ninh province, Huong Tich apricot, tao meo – a type of fruit from Hoang Lien Son cordillera…

Whether the wine is healthy is definitely not the priority, it is uniqueness which comes first. During thet Tet holiday, people usually prefer stay at home, so it is not easy for me to arrange a get-together. Aware of this, last year, I boasted: “I got a unique pair of seahorses, welcome everybody to my house on the Tet holiday to see them.” Somebody whispered immediately: “What a disappointment! Seahorse, as common as dirt!” I answered: “Just wait, I bet no one can find such a pair of General seahorses!” When they heard the words “General seahorses,” everyone noisily asked for an explanation.

The normal length of a seahorse is only 3 inches; however my pair of seahorses is truly the first, they are four times longer – 11 inches, and as big as half of my wrist. It was given to me by my brother-in-law, who had received it as a gift from his student with a compliment: “This kind of stuff can’t be bought even with a lot of money.”

This year, my friends once again ask me whether I have anything unique. Unique? No! But something extraordinary? Yes! Last summer, an acquaintance of mine working for Khanh Hoa Swift Company sent me a jar of alcohol soaked swifts’ eggs.

This specialty is uncommon in the market, because there isn’t enough for the people in the industry. When asking about the benefit such alcoholic drink, I was told that it can help in stabilizing blood pressure. Great! Only this can infatuate all men in their fifties.

There’s just one thing, despite our passion for uniqueness, many of my friends and I never dare to try tasting. That’s the huyet linh wine in Hoa Binh province. What is it? The answer is that huyet linh is the blood of female monkeys in their menstruation…Alas, I’d better stop here, otherwise you would lose your appetite for the Tet holiday!