DAY THIRTY-TWO: Funky Chicken

Day 32 had me in a bit of a fix. I had been so busy fulfilling various engagements that, before I knew it, the day was nearly over and I hadn’t completed my daily challenge. Ever loyal to the old “Keep Calm and Carry On” ethos (impossible not to be with it currently printed on every piece of merchandise in England), I calmly went to my arranged dinner date with the intention of naughtily ignoring the pickle I had got myself into.

As luck would have it, I was to dine with my good friends Danya and Olivia, who happen to be pretty experimental themselves and had by chance picked a restaurant which would provide me with a more than adequate challenge. These girls have been demanding a Blog shout-out on for a while now, so I did wonder if the whole evening was a ploy to get a mention. I wouldn’t put it past them, the cheeky minxes.

And so it was time for my final culinary adLenture, and this recurring theme was to end with a bang. Danya, Olivia and I were in Yum Cha, an authentic Dim Sum restaurant. Nothing too remarkable there: I’ve had Dim Sum many times before. However, on the menu in this particular eatery was a dish I had never even contemplated sampling before: Chicken Feet. As soon as I saw this on offer, I knew I had my perfect experiment for the day. Bon appétit.

Ewwwwwwwww!!!

When the Chicken Feet arrived, they looked every bit as disgusting as you’d imagine. Despite being garnished with bits of chilli and a typically gloopy Chinese sauce, the food looked really quite foul. Seeming like a cross between fried fingers and moist twigs and smelling like a soiled KFC, the Chicken Feet did not appeal. It was therefore with reluctance and trepidation that I picked one up...

I would love to say that I was pleasantly surprised, I really would. Having been proved wrong several times throughout my adLenture, I did think that this might happen again (especially after our waited assured us that the delicacy was “vay nice, yes!”). Unfortunately, my dining experience cannot be described as an enjoyable one. My two friends and I all bit into the feet at the same time, and all immediately recoiled in shock – “it’s the shared experience of Dim Sum that I love the best”, Danya romantically gushed. The moist appearance of the food had led us to believe that they would be soft and gooey. How wrong we were. The feet were riddled with bones, and were very tough on teeth. This was a shock, but one I felt I could deal with. What was less manageable was the slimy texture of the skin around the bone. Imagine the wet flesh you often find on cold chicken wings. Now imagine eating nothing but that, covered in a sticky sauce. Not a pleasant experience, I assure you.

Half amusement - Half absolute revulsion

The worst part of the meal was actually getting the feet to an edible state. The bones inside were all in tiny morsels (as is the case with feet, even in humans – a horrible thought, admittedly), and much attention was required not to swallow any. In fact, once you got rid of the vast quantity of bone, there was very little meat to actually speak of. As such, my overriding memory of the feet is of attempting to eat them, and not actually doing so. A messy business, to say the least.

We all eventually got through a chicken foot each, and were faced with still one more in order to clear the plate. Danya “accidentally” dropped hers in a candle. Olivia point blank refused. I, in the spirit of experiLenting however, managed to stomach one more. I’m still not really sure why I did this, and I assure you that this is not an activity which improves with practice. The thought of it still makes my skin crawl a bit. Gooey, fleshy grossness. *Voms*

Day 31: Get Cold Feet over Chicken Feet. DONE!

Peace & Love,
Rich xx