Looking Jakarta's Most-Dangerous Meal In Its Deadly Little Eyes

The snakes were hissing mad. Ibu Rica set up the waist-high cage of writhing, pissed-off cobras about 30 minutes ago, and the motorbike cacophony of Jalan Mangga Besar was already annoying the creatures.

Not that it mattered much to Ibu Rica. She had one of the snakes in her fist, holding its wriggling body tight as she pinched its head between wooden tongs. The snake hissed as she squeezed the tongs together and pulled, yanking the cobra's head off its body in one clean motion.

"My husband sells durian a few tents down the road," she casually told me as the headless snake's body twisted angrily. "He doesn't dare help me with these cobras."

It was my third time visiting Ibu Rica's bright yellow cobra tent. She sets up her tent around 5:30 p.m. every day near the SUMI Hotel in Mangga Besar, offering customers sticks of peanut sauce-covered cobra sate and shots of snake blood. The highly venomous snake is eaten across Southeast Asia, where its blood and meat is believed to have curative properties.

Ibu Rica placed a laminated list in front of me that ticked off everything cobra gall bladder can help fix. It can detoxify your lungs and your blood, cure rheumatism, diabetes, abnormal vaginal discharge, high and low blood pressure, and all sorts of skin problems like acne, allergy, eczema, and rashes. Cobra was a super drug, or so the list claimed.

But there's another reason Ibu Rica opens her cobra stall at night. Cobra is believed to improve one's stamina—as in stamina between the sheets. Across Asia, men believe that consuming a cobra's blood and organs will boost their sexual performance. Ibu Rica told me that a lot of men stop by her cobra stall with the hopes that a shot of snake blood will improve their "stamina." But it's all probably in their heads, she said.

"In my opinion, it's more of a mental suggestion when it comes to improving male virility," she said. "It helps certain people, but doesn't work for some other. Since snakes improve stamina, men might last longer in bed. But they are good for skin, that one I can guarantee."

"Does it really work?" I asked.

"Ask my regulars," Ibu Rica said as she pointed to the clear-skinned woman in a pony tail sitting next to me. The woman, a travel agent named Carolina, told me that she has been eating snake three times a month for the past three years.

"I used to have pimples all over my face," Carolina said. "Now it's wonderful. My whole family believes in the benefits of snake now. The meat particularly is good for the skin. The blood and gall bladder are more for stamina."

When Ibu Rica was a younger woman, she had no idea people ate snakes. She was born in Jakarta, growing up in what is today the largest megacity in Southeast Asia. Cobras exist in Indonesia, but they are far more common in the jungles and paddies of rural countryside. Pythons, sure. But cobras? In Jakarta? No way.

But when Ibu Rica married her husband, the durian vender, he suggested she open a cobra stall. There were a lot of Japanese and Taiwanese immigrants working and hanging around Mangga Besar, and her husband thought the snake tent would be a hit.

"They told me those people liked to consume snakes," Ibu Rica said.

She learned how to cook cobra by reading recipes online. She serves the snake as sate, grilling the tough meat before drenching it in peanut sauce, onions, cucumber, and fiery birds eye chili. She also cooks the snake's organs and serves its blood in a tiny white china cup.

"Could you choose a good one for me?" I said.

"Sure thing," she said with a wink. Ibu Rica plunged her arm into the cobra cage, snatching one of the deadly serpents with her bare hand. The cobras need to keep their fangs and venom to "maximize" the health benefits. De-fanged cobras are seen as lacking the necessary ingredients to improve one's stamina and vitality. The more venomous the snake, the more potent its effects, Ibu Rica said.

"I get the snakes from Semarang, Serang, or Tegal," she told me. "My source hires a bunch of workers to catch snakes by the kilo and deliver them to Jakarta. I usually order around 100 snakes every ten days. I used to sell different types of snakes, but now I specialize in cobras since they are most potent and popular."

Ibu Rica held the pissed off snake in her hand. It hissed furiously and showed me its tiny fangs.

"The more aggressive the cobra is, the better," she said. "You get to absorb its strong energy and it will be good for your stamina. King Cobras are best, since they are bigger and more aggressive. But I only bring in King Cobra when there is a special order, and they cost more than normal ones."

But all this aggression comes with a cost. Ibu Rica has been bitten before. She has a deep scar on her left arm from when a cobra sunk its teeth into her back in 2009, sending her to intensive care and keeping her bedridden for months.

Cobra venom is incredibly dangerous. Ibu Rica survived the bite, but every year as many as 11,000 others don't, according to the International Society on Toxinology. Last year, a young dangdut singer who used a King Cobra during her performance died after one bit her on stage.

"It is a risky job, but profitable as well," Ibu Rica told me. "You can sell so many things from just one snake. The skin and the bones can be used to make different kind of oils, ointments, and medications for even more money."

She pulled the cobra's head off and drained its blood into a small cup. The dark blood filled the cup up halfway. The cobra's head rolled off the cutting board, onto the top of the cage. It's mouth opened and closed slowly as the beheaded creature's muscles used their last bit of energy.

Ibu Rica and her assistant grabbed hold of the headless snake and stripped its skin back. The body was still wiggling when Ibu Rica started to cut out its organs.

"It will continue moving until I barbecue them," she said. "Do you want the liver and the heart too? I could barbecue them into satay."

"Sure," I said. "Why not."

She placed the raw gall bladder on a saucer. Next, she added in a bit of rice wine and honey to the blood. "Enjoy," Ibu Rica said as she pushed the cup toward me. The gall bladder was purple, squishy, and covered in white mucous. I closed my eyes and swallowed it whole, washing it down with a cup of blood. The blood tasted like alcohol and honey.

The sate was tough and chewy as hell. Snakes are lean creatures, and the meat tasted like it. But the sauce was delicious, a perfect mix of spicy bite and smooth peanut flavor. The whole meal cost me about Rp 100,000 ($7.50 USD). It's enough to allow Ibu Rica to put both her children through university.

"No one else in my family wants to touch this business," she said. "I am the bravest of them all."