Photo: Sina Weibo

 Health authorities in South China temporarily closed a university eatery on Saturday after a student ordered a bowl of rice noodles and instead discovered a snake.

The student at Guangxi University got people's skin crawling on Sina Weibo after she snapped a photo of the small snake mixed in her serving of snail rice noodles on Friday.

The photo whet appetites for sarcasm on social media. "Hey, boss, I did not ask for a snake," a Weibo user commented. "At least we know the food is organic," another said.

The takeout order of noodles had come from a food stall in Guangxi University, Nanning, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, local news portal gxnews.com.cn reported on Sunday.

Discussion over the photo eventually caught the attention of the local food and drug administration, which conducted an investigation.

While the stall owner denied the surprise snake claim, the food stall was found not to meet health codes, local newspaper Nanning Evening Post reported.