Chicken Feet

One of the most misunderstood foods in modern society. Chicken Feet. Chicken feet flavoured with black bean sauce and chili, after having been steamed for such a long time that even the hard skin on its surface has turned soft and mushy.
Despite this gruesome description, chicken feet is one of my absolute yum cha favourites. It has all that lovely milky flavour you get when you eat tendons which is balanced out nicely by the sauce and flavourings. I love it to the point that when I see the chicken feet lady coming with her trolley, my smile dilates by around 10cm (Exaggerating don't worry). The best chicken feet is the kind that is not too bony and has a lot of flesh. So essentially the thicker, meatier ones. Some of the skinnier specimens tend to put you off the rest of your food, especially since the feet are sometimes depictions of talons reaching out towards you. Not the picture of good taste now is it?
I seem to recall in the first series of Biggest Loser Australia, they had a yum cha temptation. Kristy got the chicken feet and though she was very much disgusted at the prospect of it, she ate it all the same without too much of a struggle! I wasn't very surprised, being as you noticed an avid chicken feet fan, but apparently eating that chicken feet won her immunity too! So she probably knows what to order at a yum cha the next time she goes!
People tend to ask this question most about chicken feet: "what flesh is there actually on a chicken foot?" Well, I think the answer is, there is no flesh! It's nothing but that skin and tendons and ligaments! It also surprises me at how there is something to eat off it though, considering when you watch the feet of living chickens they appear to be nothing more than scaly limbs! But oh well, as the philosophy is, don't judge a book by its cover. You might like it!

Pad Thai

I've just had a major brainwave: "why don't I use my blog to talk about one of the things I love most in the world? FOOD!" So here is the first installment of my food blogging. Pad Thai. Apologies if I've spelled it wrong.
Along with Tom Yum Soup, (which I will discuss another time) Pad Thai is one of my absolute favourites when it comes to Thai Restaurants. The first point I have to make is on the quality of the noodles. Those lovely flat, oily-but not too oily noodles, which when made well provide only a tiny bit of resistance and seem to have a small bland flavour that accentuates the abundance of flavour in the stir-fry dish. Pad Thai is usually served with spices, beansprouts, chives, peanuts and a lemon wedge. All of these are on the side and have to be mixed with the main dish itself.
The main dish itself features those noodles, as well as beef, chicken or seafood. Other than that it's been cooked with garlic, class thai herbs and a sauce of some sort. I'm not a culinary expert so I don't quite know what's in the sauce but I would hazard a guess that soy sauce is part of it.
Unfortunately, I've had some bad times with this dish too. The main problem with it is probably adding too little ingredients so the poor customer is left with noodles like two pieces of beef and the sauce. The meat in the whole ensemble is a vital element and cannot be disregarded as such. Oh and for vegetarians, Pad Thai has tofu in it too, so if you want you could forgo the beef, I guess. Anyway, I also don't like Pad Thai when they overflavour it, and the flavours of the sauce are all you can taste, not that nice balanced, harmonious taste you should have.
I wish I had a recipe for it...though the major problem with that is my less than satisfactory cooking skills...

MasterChef Australia

Today I wanted to talk about how much I love Masterchef Australia. It's such a great show! I am a gigantic lover of food (eating it) and the show just caters to my interests. This year seems like a really good year since all of the contestants have a very positive and philosophical attitude to food, which I love in reality shows. There is also a notable lack of people who are just jerks and think they're the absolute best in the show when they're actually not very good at cooking. This year my favourites would have to be Alvin, Claire and Kate. Alvin is very very funny and a great cook, but despite that just seems so down to earth, not like some other people in reality TV who grow arrogant and overconfident. I like Claire and Kate for their very appreciative attitude towards Masterchef. Kate is always like "omg! I can't do this! but oh well the point is to keep learning as a chef." Claire seems calm, relaxed not overdramatic or anything but you can see she works hard!
I am also a gigantic fan of the judges. Unlike Australian Idol, whose judges' comments were absolutely vile. I find that the Masterchef judges give comments that someone can really work with. Comments that you can really appreciate and the connection they have with the contestants is seems so much more than the Australian Idol connections. George's comments when the food is good are always so appreciative and positive that they can't help but make us all at home feel so much hungrier watching them eat their food. I find that I just get so hungry while watching the show that at one point in time I was just shoving a handful of M&Ms into my mouth everytime the judges had a bite of their food. *sigh*