Turn away Vegans and/or PETA types. Last night, my wife and I were doing some late night grocery shopping. As often happens, we divide up and go our separate ways to grab this and that and rejoin along the way. I was in the meat section perusing the ridiculous price increases over the past few years when I came upon a food item I had personally never seen in my citified life time: chicken paws. Freaky looking! Obviously, my non-farming/ranching/sanitized food prep existence has denied me some realities of food prep. But, the Chicken Paws brought me to a halt.
My humor button was pushed, so I put the Chicken Paws in the cart and proceeded to look for my wife. She returned to the cart and in her normal distracted manner didn’t see the Chicken Paws. I casually drew attention to the paws and her response was beyond my wildest prankster expectations!
She became quite verbal, quite audible, quite animated! Wow! Who knew Chicken Paws could draw forth such a response?
I mean we think nothing of frying up some drumbsticks and savoring that fine meat wrapped around that bone. But Chicken Feet or Paws do seem to elicit a mind tweak of sorts. So to give Chicken Paws their supposed due, here is the food, cooking, recipe low down on Chicken Paw usage.
Simply Recipes: “The “Eww” factor of chicken feet I think comes from the fact that chicken feet look a lot like our hands. Silly eh? Especially when we consider that making stock from chicken feet has been a human activity for thousands of years. Most of our grandmothers or great grandmothers used feet in their stock as a matter of fact. They would laugh at us today to see us cringe. Stock made from chicken feet is fabulous, and incredibly good for you with all that gelatin.“
Now no offense to any visitors here from China/Vietnam, but if you are going to try the Chicken Paw recipes, buy locally produced Chicken Paws!
“Chinese police have uncovered an illegal food storage site in China’s southern city of Nanning that reportedly contained chicken feet nearly a half century old. According to the South China Morning Post, more than 20 tonnes of expired meat were seized in the raid, including beef tripe, cartilage, and the aforementioned chicken feet, some of which dated all the way back to 1967. The site was busted back in May, though the details of the operation have only been made public recently.
A Xinhua report cited by the South China Morning Post notes that the chicken feet were smuggled across the border from Vietnam still frozen. Once in China, they were processed with various chemicals, including bleach, to add weight and improve their coloring, making them appear fresh.” (The Telegraph UK) & HuffPo
