Ordinary Gweilo

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Skin & Bones

Chicken chopped up into little pieces, each one with its own compliment of bone and skin. Don’t get that all, and yet it’s a mainstay of Chinese cooking.

If there are any mad scientists reading this, I’m kinda hoping that you could find a way to breed all animal and fish (all least the ones that we eat) so that they had no bones at all.

No, I didn’t think so.  But maybe for intensively-reared chicken?  It would stop them getting anywhere near wild birds with Bird Flu, methinks.

Anyway, given the existence of bones, I have always found that the best approach is to serve the meat in large-enough pieces so that you can remove the flesh from the bone – rather than the other way around (picking out small pieces of bone from your meat).  Locals seemingly have no problem with this, having become very proficient at stuffing the food in their mouths and spitting out bones and anything else they don’t plan to eat.  Sadly, I can’t do that – hence my complaint.

And don’t even get me started on chicken feet…   

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4 responses to “Skin & Bones”

  1. dgynhk avatar
    dgynhk

    I suppose we ought to be thankful we get all the extra nurtrients from the bones etc., although my preference is to cook a chicken, get the meat off it and then use the “extras” for stock. Still use the whole chicken – and in fact get at least two meals out of it instead of one, so the “thrifty” argument is covered – but in a more civilised fashion.
    The tendency is not unique to the Chinese – I lived in Antigua for a while and a local favourite is a rice/chicken/bean dish where a whole chicken is thrown in with the rest and the better part of the meal is spent figuring out which bits are edible.

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  2. Argleblaster avatar
    Argleblaster

    I believe owls have a similar method of eating small rhodents. Not that I advocate owls as a model for the gourmand.

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  3. C.Uppertee avatar
    C.Uppertee

    I call it ‘roadkill chicken’, much to the other half’s annoyance. Where do they find such skinny chickens anyway?

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  4. dave avatar
    dave

    C., I think they starve them to death.

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