Study Buddy (Explorer): Snakes on a plate: world’s first snake soup pizza put to the taste test
- Hong Kong Pizza Hut combines a traditional Cantonese winter dish with pizza in a unique collaboration
- Each week, this page presents an interesting story that we have adjusted to be more accessible for all English learners
Pizza Hut’s snake soup pizza was created in collaboration with heritage restaurant Ser Wong Fun and features the flavours and ingredients of snake soup. Photo:: Charmaine MokContent provided by British Council
Read the following text, and answer questions 1-9 below:
[1] If you thought Hawaiian pizza was divisive, then you haven’t been paying close attention to the many wacky toppings that have graced Pizza Hut’s pies over the years.
[2] For the winter season in Hong Kong, the brand has set internet tongues hissing with the launch of a unique snake soup pizza. It was created in collaboration with the famous snake soup restaurant Ser Wong Fun, which has been in the same family for four generations.
[3] Snake soup is a dish that was originally served in Guangdong, southern China. It is steeped in tradition and has a history going back more than 2,000 years. Considered a seasonal delicacy, it is served in winter. A traditional snake soup, known as seh gung in Cantonese, has a thick broth brewed from chicken and pork. It is usually made using the flesh of between two and five breeds of snake.
[4] It also contains thinly sliced strips of wood ear fungus, bamboo shoots and shiitake mushrooms. The soup is garnished with fried wonton skins, pale chrysanthemum petals and julienned lime leaf to offset the gaminess of the snake.
[5] According to the ideas of traditional Chinese medicine, snake is a yang ingredient, thought to combat cooling yin energy – in other words, it is believed to warm the body from inside out and act as a shield against the cold of winter.
[6] The breeds of snake whose flesh is typically used in the best snake soup include the venomous Chinese cobra and banded krait, the radiated rat snake and the long-nosed pit viper – all of which are commonly found in southeast China.
[7] What do people think about the snake soup pizza? Peter Chang is the writer behind the food blog Diary of a Growing Boy. He recommends ordering the thin crust version of the pizza, since the texture more closely resembles the crunch of the fried wonton skins added to snake soup.
[8] “Even before biting down on the first slice, the scent of kaffir lime leaf already lit up my olfactory senses. Together with the chrysanthemum petals, shredded wood ear, snake meat ... I found the flavours pretty close to what a bowl of snake soup would be,” he said.
[9] Meanwhile, Wilson Lo, the Instagrammer behind the account @hungrygrumpster, had mixed feelings about the pizza. “I appreciate the ingenuity and the fact that they partnered with Ser Wong Fun,” he said. “The actual pizza was more interesting than tasty, but impressively – for good or bad – it recreated the [thick soup] texture in the pizza with a thickish, gloopy sauce.
[10] “It’s very distinctly Canto tasting, with the dried tangerine peel being the most distinctive flavour. Unfortunately, my pizza came with green scallions instead of the promised [lime leaves], so it was missing some of the distinctive citrus flavours.”
[11] The Ser Wong Fun and Pizza Hut collaboration pizza is available until November 22, at selected Pizza Hut branches and through Foodpanda.
Source: South China Morning Post, November 9
Questions
1. Find a word in paragraph 1 that means “funny in a slightly crazy way”.
2. Besides snake meat, what other kinds of meat are traditionally added to snake soup according to paragraph 3?
3. Which time of the year do people usually eat snake soup according to paragraph 3?
4. The ingredients mentioned in paragraph 4 help to …
A. add crunchiness to the snake soup.
B. enhance the snake’s flavour.
C. reduce the gaminess of the soup.
D. balance the snake’s yang energy.
5. Decide whether the following statements in paragraphs 5 and 6 are True, False or the information is Not Given. Fill in ONE circle only for each statement. (4 marks)
(i) According to traditional Chinese medicine, eating snake can help keep us warm.
(ii) Only non-poisonous snakes are used to prepare snake soup.
(iii) Chinese medicine practitioners recommend eating a bowl of snake soup every week during winter.
(iv) The best snake soup is prepared using snake species available in Hong Kong.
6. What do the snake species mentioned in paragraph 6 have in common?
7. In paragraph 7, why does Chang recommend ordering the thin crust version of the pizza?
8. According to Chang in paragraph 8, the taste of the pizza is … a bowl of snake soup.
A. very different to
B. almost similar to
C. exactly like
D. none of the above
9. According to paragraph 10, what prevented Lo from experiencing the genuine flavour of the snake soup pizza?
Answers
1. wacky
2. chicken and pork
3. winter
4. C
5. (i) T; (ii) F; (iii) NG; (iv) F
6. They can be found in southeast China.
7. because its texture more closely resembles the crunch of fried wonton skins that are added to snake soup
8. B
9. His pizza came with green scallions instead of lime leaves.