If you eat chicken feet....

[PA Baker]

Smuggled chicken feet may be bird flu risk
11 states warned about Asian product illegally brought into U.S.

The Associated Press
Updated: 11:51 a.m. ET March 4, 2005


CLEVELAND - Health officials are putting eleven states on the lookout for boneless chicken feet -- an Asian delicacy the government says was illegally smuggled into the country.

The government banned imports of birds and poultry products from Asia last year because of bird flu.

Officials are visiting hundreds of Asian restaurants and markets in Ohio today to explain the health risks. Chicken feet have already been seized at stores in Cleveland and Columbus.

The Agriculture Department says a Connecticut-based importer, Food King, distributed chicken feet to 68 stores in eleven states. The company has cooperated with a voluntary recall.

Besides Ohio, affected states are Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

The avian flu has killed people in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia in the past year.

 

[htc]

Thank goodness I eat the ones with the bones still in it. Good stuff.

Thanks for the heads up PA!

 

[middie]

i don't eat chicken feet

 

[PA Baker]

Me either! They look exactly like what they are, which freaks me out.

I know a lot (well, most) of the folks here are more adventerous eaters than I am so I figured it was worth posting. I realized afterwards that my subject sounds like the start of a joke though!

 

[htc]

I guess adventurous is relative. Chicken feet would be normal for me, but not for most Westerners. Adventurous for me would be stuff like German or Irish food. I once went to a German rest. and they had some weird purple cabbage stuff. Now that's really different for me! I tried some, it was ok.

 

[mudbug]

You are so right about relativism, htc. I've never eaten chicken feet and probably never will, but I'm curious as to how they are prepared and what you eat with them? Are they considered a side dish, or what?

 

[htc]

I've only have them one way, at dim sum. It's the Chinese ala carte style of eating dumplings, etc for brunch.

I think they fry it then steam it, not sure...I can find out though. I have made it at home in a clay pot with fermented black beans. It takes on the flavor of whatever seasonings you cook it with. If you like the skin of chicken, they you'd probably like chicken feet (if you can get over the look).

 

[htc]

I pulled this off of recipezaar. I think it would be similar to the taste of the dim sum dish I was talking about earlier.

12 chicken feet, declawed and skinned
3 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine
3 slices ginger
3 green onions
1 tablespoon barbecue sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
star anise
1 piece orange rind
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 pint water
Combine all ingredients and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

 

[mudbug]

Well, I can certainly eat plenty of chicken skin when it's battered and fried! And I would like to try dim sum sometime - kind of like the "small plates" that are (were?) so in. Lots of little tastes of different things.

However, I think I'll wait until this bird flu thing is over.

 

[Raine]

My first trip to NYC, near Chinatown were kids selling fried chicken feet.

 

[nicole]

I don't eat chicken feet either. Matter of fact, I don't eat any kind of feet.