I've never been a big fan of chicken feet. They always seemed to be something that people ordered at dim sum places for the sheer novelty (or even shock value) of it all, and to me, it just tasted like a bunch of gelatinous skin wrapped around tiny bones. But tonight, this spicy version from some vendors in Chinatown was handed to me as a sampler, so I sat down with some suds to see what it was like.
They were pretty darned spicy, and much more interesting than those soy sauce-based ones that one gets in Cantonese restaurants. And that spiciness went great with some cold beer. I guess that it's a bit like eating buffalo wings or even the Boiling Crab; one really can't eat it as a meal given how little *food* is actually there in exchange for taking the time to gnaw on those pesky bones. But washing down those salty spices with beer can be a fun afternoon snack.
Still, I couldn't quite get used to that strange texture. Didn't Bourdain get some flame-grilled chicken feet in Vietnam once? If so, then I'm assuming that it would make this a bit more palatable, as one definitely can't complain about the taste of grilled chicken skin, especially if it offsets the uneasiness of chewing on collagen. I'll have to hunt some down next time I'm there; hopefully it's available at one of those wonderful bia hơi.
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