Good Morning Folks,
As I am sure we would all agree, an important part of martial arts excellence is the right diet. And here in Taiwan we have been keeping up with the latest in sports nutrition advances.
So I present to you all; the 7-11 Microwave Chicken Feet! Actually I send this around for all the old Taiwan folks who might remember chicken feet. 7-11 has now started stocking microwaveable chicken feet. In fact the kids at the 7-11 will nuke them right there for you. I actually like them, but they are pretty labor intensive (taking the little feets apart and all the in the mouth maneuvering trying to get the fat/gristle/flesh off the little bones) and…they may not be health conscious.
But still I thought the two photos might amuse folks and show that Taiwan is still a leader in food technology. The whole thing motivated me to do the xingyi chicken form this morning during my practice.
Back in the 60s Mark Foon took a few of us on a food break to a restaurant on Mott St. and enthusiastically ordered the “soup of the day” … Chicken Foot Soup.
Being unfamiliar with oriental tastes in food, I wanted to know why this particular soup was so great… Mark Foon emphatically stated “fix joints!” (or something similar). I then discovered that it was even more important to learn how to eat the danged things. It turned out that the approved method was to pop a whole chicken foot in your mouth and tongue it around a bit, trapping the many small bones against your palate with your tongue while swallowing the flesh/skin/whatever.
Following this, it was “ok” to simply push out the bones into your palm and put them on a side dish.
I worked my way through the course, and still was unsure about the benefits of the soup… went to crack my fingers… and heard NOTHING!
Mark Foon (nodding vigorously/affirmative): “FIX JOINTS!”
(NOTHING cracked for about 3 months after that…)
I actually tried chicken feet once. Those small bones are a pain in the rectum. I am lazy when it comes to eating, it has to be easy: boneless spare ribs, boneless chicken wings. At times I wish my local pizzeria would throw a slice of pepperoni in the blender so I can just drink it.
You know, I worked in a chinese restaurant where the owners would eat chicken feet. I thought it was disgusting. They always told me that chicken feet were good for the joints. I told them i would pass. They would boil them then eat them.
[QUOTE=GreenCloudCLF;879897]Tried pig knouckles too once. Too tough.[/QUOTE]
They are not too tough. Just drop them in a crock pot with some dried pinto beans, some water, a pinch of paprika and nothing else. Let it simmer for at least 6 hours. The meat falls right off the bones and the sodium that is in cured pigs feet seasons the beans. Easy. then you can ladel the beens and ham hocks over either corn bread or steamed rice.
My wife previously recounted a childhood memory of eating a trotter. Her family is poor and couldn’t afford much meat and it was probably the biggest single piece of meat she had ever eaten at that time.
I had been buying boneless, skinless chicken breasts as our main source of protein for a while and picked up a trotter for her at Wal Mart. She cooked it and said that she really didn’t like it.
Might have been how she cooked it. My family is one of those friggin huge scotts-irish families. We ate, and still eat, a lot of stuff others thought was strange. I also have a great, stupidly simple recipe for pickled cow’s heart and toungue. Also checken liver. My great grandmother used to make fried chicken feet, but I never liked them as much as the pickled heart.
[QUOTE=GreenCloudCLF;879859]I actually tried chicken feet once. Those small bones are a pain in the rectum. I am lazy when it comes to eating, it has to be easy…[/QUOTE]
Just guessing… but that pain you mentioned in your nether region usually happens when you’re to lazy to push the bones out and and make the mistake of swallowing them instead. :eek:
