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!