Feet, Feet, Feet.

On Friday, our small staff went out for their weekly staff lunch. While in Sichuan I had managed to dodge what Guo Xin called "pigs feet soup" however she assured me that the meat was sliced up and I would like it. So when at lunch she said, "Let's order pigs feet. I think you will like it", how could I say no. Much like a Jedi master, the power of suggestion is strong in that one, Guo Xin. When the feet arrived, they looked like feet, sans hoof. But what was a poor foreigner to do? I plucked one up with my chopped sticks, asked the required question "What parts do I eat?" and dove in. Perhaps, my squimish reflexes were weakened by hunger but as I explored the soft tissue, extracted the meta-tarsals and ate it, I was only vaguely aware that this really could be considered gross. It actually tasted quite good. The tissue was like nothing I've had before. It was stewed to within an inch of its life so that everything just fell away and melted in your mouth. It wasn't squishy like fat, stringy like tendon or hard like gristle. Yet it had no texture like meat. Guo Xin said it's collagen and good for your skin (nice added persuasive measure!) And while I wouldn't run out and order more, I have survived to add another "try it once" oddity to my food list.

And while we are on the subject of feet and bones. I will borrow from the next day's events. At lunch on Saturday (more about that day in the next post) I tried both "chicken claw" and "steamed chicken soft bone". Not as pleasant an experience as the pig foot. The claw was fried similarly to a chicken wing, but after some attempts at removing anything edible from it, I left the rest on my plate. Kinda gross. After my first bite of "soft bone" which really was not that soft and I mistakenly thought I'd gotten a bad piece and put it on my plate, I was instructed to actually chomp on the thing. So I grabbed another and did, but ew, no flavor and you just feel like you are crunching through something that shouldn't be eaten. Guo Xin hazarded a guess that it may be a chicken knee - something hard but not calcified. Two more tries to add to the list...