How about a big bowl of snow frog glands topped by stewed fruit bat? Perhaps you'd prefer black ants, washed down with deer-penis wine? Or maybe you just want to relax over deep-fried drunken scorpion with asparagus.

    Whether it's stewed fruit bat or deer-penis wine, restaurateur Wang-Lee Tee Eng knows how to dish it out.

    All these and more are possible at Singapore's Imperial Herbal Restaurant, run by York grad (BA Atkinson '76) Wang-Lee Tee Eng. "It's a challenge to try [these dishes]," Wang-Lee says. "A lot of people are curious. Once they eat it... they come back."

    Returning to her native Singapore after graduation, Wang-Lee became involved in the family business (her father owns the Hotel Metropole, in which her restaurant is located). In the mid-1980s the recession hit. Looking for a competitive strategy for a business, Wang-Lee says she noticed people in the West were turning to natural health care and alternative medicine. While the Chinese people have a tradition of herbal health care, it is practised mainly at home.

    Wang-Lee travelled to China to do research and to set up a joint venture with a Chinese pharmaceutical company specializing in herbal medicine. The result was the Imperial Herbal Restaurant -- the only genuine herbal restaurant in southeast Asia, Wang-Lee says. "I turned [this tradition of herbal medicine] into a restaurant. I have a Chinese doctor on staff who understands herbs [and offers customers free advice]."

    While the unusual dishes are an attraction, she still has traditional fare -- vegetables, seafood, meat and, of course, herbs. All have medicinal value, Wang-Lee says. Lingzhi (mushroom) soup prevents hepatitis, cancer, heart disease, insomnia and asthma. Drunken scorpion is good for headaches and "wind-damp conditions." A bowl of deer-penis soup, which sells for $30 Singapore (approximately $29 Cdn.), is considered an aphrodisiac.

    The restaurant was "a new concept but I always believed there was a market for it," says Wang-Lee. "Now others are trying to follow what I've done."