In November of 2023, Hong Kong made the headlines of CNN again. This time, it was not about protests. But the topic was equally controversial. It was about a limited-time autumn menu from a famous pizza restaurant here.
Restaurants introduce limited-time menus periodically. It is a common practice. Restaurants around the world do the same thing. The controversial point was that the restaurant put some very special meat on top of their pizzas.
Hong Kong Pizza Hut introduced a limited-time menu to celebrate the coming of autumn. They offered two special pizzas for a limited time: Double Flavour Preserved Sausage Pizza and Snake Soup Pizza! Yes, Pizza Hut of Hong Kong was putting snake meat on top of their pizzas!
Limited-time menu of Pizza Hut
We do not have big festivals to celebrate autumn here, compared to Thanksgiving in the US. But traditionally, autumn is always a time to celebrate as farmers finish their last harvest of the year and prepare for the winter to come.
Autumn is also a time of climate changes. The weather gets cooler and drier as winter approaches. Traditionally, people in the southern part of China, including Hong Kong, start eating snake. It is believed that snake meat can make people feel warm.
Snake meat is normally served in a soup form. It is usually a soup mixed with fungus, mushroom, chicken meat, and thickened with flour. Snake broth also exists. Some restaurants also sell fried snake meat. But overall, the consumption of snake meat is not so common nowadays, especially among the younger generations. They adapt more to the western cuisines.
However, Snake Soup Pizza is definitely a cultural shock! In one weekend of November, I took my mum to a local Pizza Hut to try the pizza that made the CNN headline. Let me show you how the pizza looks like.
Aberdeen Pizza Hut
At the entrance of the Pizza Hut restaurant in Aberdeen, there was a big poster showing their autumn special menu. Both snake soup and clay pot rice with Chinese preserved sausages are common dishes that we consume during the autumn and winter time. The restaurant was not full and we were immediately escorted to a table next to the entrance.
Let me show you how much those special pizzas were.
To save manpower, most restaurants in HK ask their customers to order food through cellphones. Thanks to this, I can simply capture the screen of the menu and show you what ingredients were inside the pizza.
The toppings of the Snake Soup Pizza include shredded fungus, dried tangerine peel, Jinhua ham, shiitake mushroom, ginger, bamboo shoot, cheese, chicken, abalone sauce, chrysanthemum, lemongrass, and, definitely, snake meat!
Some explanations are needed here. Although called Snake “Soup” Pizza, there was no soup on the pizza. It only had the taste of snake soup. In other words, it is better to call it Snake Soup “Flavoured” Pizza. The toppings of the pizza include all condiments that we use to make snake soup.
Ingredients of the Preserved Sausage Pizza
The less scary Double Flavour Preserved Sausage Pizza includes double preserved sausage stuffed crust, preserved meat sausage, preserved duck liver sausage, spicy sauce, cheese, red onion, mixed mushroom, green pepper, scorched rice and spring onion. There was no snake meat on this one. I did not order this one so I don’t know how it tasted.
In just 20 minutes, our pizza arrived. Sya-hassa-she. Sya-hasi-heth!
So how did the snake pizza look like?
Pizza Hut Snake Soup Pizza
The pizza looked very similar to ordinary pizzas. The first eye-catching ingredient was probably the white flowers lying on top. They were the petals of chrysanthemum. I don’t think chrysanthemum is a common ingredient in western cuisine and yes, we eat flowers. The flakes in green colour were not parsley or spring onion. They were dried lemongrasses.
Let me show you some close-ups of the toppings. Many may think that those large chunks of meat are snake meat. No, they were not. They were chicken. Snake meat is very lean and does not contain any fat.
This thread of meat is snake
This is snake meat. It is lean and cut into threads. A closer look at them will reveal some fish texture on it. Snake meat does not have much taste. It just tastes like lean pork. Most of the flavour of the toppings came from other ingredients, such as cheese, mushroom, lemongrass, and ginger.
How did it taste?
The pizza tasted very good. I had not tried any snake soup for years and the pizza reminded me of the taste of snake soup. I liked it.
How about the price of the Snake Soup Pizza?
The price of the Snake Soup Pizza was HKD 186 each, which is around USD 24. The Double Flavour Preserved Sausage Pizza was cheaper, at HKD 143 each, which is around USD 18. I also showed you the prices of other regular pizzas. The Snake Soup Pizza was like 20% more expensive than other pizzas.
Together with the pizza, we also ordered some Buffalo Wings and a dish of Baked Spinach with Cheese.
The whole lunch cost me HKD 291.50, which is around USD 38.
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