So… What do chicken feet taste like?

**DO NOT GO FURTHER IF YOU HAVE A QUEASY STOMACH!**

For someone who claims to be such a foodie, I realised with quite an unpleasant start that I hardly have any foodie posts on here! That’s it, I decided. My next post will be about food. And so, here it is!

As some of you know, I’ve been in Singapore for the past few months, and since I’m very enthusiastic about trying new types of food, I almost danced out of my mind when I saw ‘Live Frog’ being advertised everywhere. Well, I still haven’t had the chance to try that yet, but I have experienced the joy of something almost as interesting.

Someday I’m going to write a more exhaustive post about all the interesting things I had here, but for today, I’m going to show you just one of the more ‘interesting’ things I’ve had, and then, next time, I’ll take you to a restaurant I visited with a Singaporean friend.

So let’s talk about my first (and, so far, only) experience with chicken feet.

Steamed Chicken Feet at Kopitiam food court

I’ll wait while you look away and groan.

Ever since I saw this item on the menu, I knew I was going to have to try it. My mother, on the other hand, explicitly threatened me to not have it in front of her (or at all, if she could have her way. She’s a little queasy-kinds). So when I was alone once, I knew exactly what I was going to order 😀

The container came with three pieces of claw, and for the longest time I just sat and stared and withdrew my hand squealing every time I gathered enough courage to try to touch it. Then suddenly, this other lady came up to me and asked me where I got that from. So that gave me a bit of courage, and showed me that this thing is actually in demand. A delicacy. I told her to help herself off my plate because I knew by then that there was no way I was going to be able to eat all three pieces. When Auntyji literally devoured that one piece of claw and licked the bones totally clean, I was just like… If she can do it, so can I.

Deep breath and I reached for it again, and failed Sheesh, why is it so difficult to touch things you’re not used to eating?? While the lady sitting opposite me laughed her head off, I got up from the table, determinedly brought back a fork and finally stabbed that thing and put it in my mouth (while she kept muttering words of encouragement to me. I don’t think I could have done it without her).

Texture ? Not unpleasant… It was chewy, and reminded me very vaguely of chicken wings.

Taste? Not bad, but I guess that depends on how it’s prepared.

What’s the problem then? The PROBLEM is that these things look exactly like baby hands. If you have the stomach for it, just scroll up and look at the first pic in the collage.  Also, I see uncooked chicken feet a lot in the supermarket, and they’re very, how do I put it, reptilian. Not the best images to have when you want to eat something. I just kept telling myself that they’re just steamed chicken parts, go protein!!!

Anyway, it’s considered a delicacy and a lot of people LOVE it, and I quite think I’d like it if I was more used to the idea. It’s quite funny that I still can’t touch it with my hands, but I have no qualms about putting it in my mouth.

Tell me… Have you every tried it? Would you?

And finally, as usual, I’m going to end with this… I submitted my blog for a competition called the Big Blog Exchange, and I would be really, really grateful if you could spare a few moments and vote for me by clicking here or the image below (or in the sidebar on the right) and clicking the verification link they email you. I need to stay in the top 25 (no 17 now) of the Asian blogs till voting closes on 3rd September  to make it the final judging round, and you can help me get there!

Vote for me! 🙂