China Wants Us For Our "Jumbo, Juicy" Chicken Feet
The waters of international trade with the Chinese are perilous and murky to say the least. Sometimes it seems that all we do is buy, buy, buy. Not so. We do have something that the Chinese want. Chicken feet. Apparently, our chicken feet are awesome.
From the NYT:
About half of the chicken parts sold to China are wings and feet, which are worth only a few cents a pound in the United States. As delicacies in China, they fetch 60 cents to 80 cents a pound, a price that no other foreign market comes close to matching, according to industry experts.
Mr. Aho said the big chicken feet result from the American preference for white chicken meat. A bird bred for big breasts is necessarily bred to have big, strong feet and legs, he said. The United States is by far the world's leading supplier of king-size chicken feet.
China is threatening to cut off imports of American chicken, but experts think they are too cracked out on our awesome chicken feet to go through with it.
"We have these jumbo, juicy paws the Chinese really love," said Paul W. Aho, a poultry economist and consultant, "so I don't think they are going to cut us off."
You know, it's nice to be good at something.
Chewy Chicken Feet May Quash a Trade War [NYT] (Thanks, Cory!)
(Photo:Stewart)
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Comments:
We give them our chicken feet, they give us their melamine.
Chicken feet make the best stock. I buy them in bulk from the lady who supplies my chickens.
Wait, why are they threatening to cut off imports?
I like Chicken Feet, tastes just like chicken.
Am I the only one who though of "Grandma's Chicken Feet" from the old Talk Soup show???
@pecan 3.14159265: I like them, but they're an awful amount of work for a small amount of meat. One of our local establishments calls them 'phoenix claws'
@henrygates: For those who can't or won't, they're pissed off we're raising tire import fees on them.
So when foot fetish aliens come to feast on human flesh, I suppose they will come to the U.S. because people bred to be fat asses will necessarily be bred to have big, strong feet and legs to support their weight.
So does this mean the shoe is on the other (chicken)foot now?
@Al Swearengen: I actually thought about this, and I disagree. Fat people have trouble supporting their own weight because of the pressure on their joints. 300 pound obese people would not have the same muscle mass as 300 pound linebacker because their legs are mostly fat and not muscle. I think the foot fetish aliens would go after the NFL.
@chiieddy: The direct chinese translation of the dish is "phoenix claws". Chinese people are really hung up on the way things sound and "Chicken Feet" isn't quite appetizing. As for it being a lot of work, I think it's really easy as long as you don't stick to American table manners: Bite a huge chunk off and then spit out the bones!
Why can't they make their chicken feet at home like the rest of us?
Chicken feet are great with toe jam!
Of course they like our chicken feet- they are so tender because they never touch the ground!
@chiieddy: Not anymore work than unpeeled shrimp or steamed crab.
And totally agree with iamlost26. Inedible food can go out the mouth just as the yummy stuff comes in :)
@nybiker: It's because the Chinese don't have the American obsession with white meat. If anything the dark meat is so much tastier. The breeding differences in the chicken produces top heavy chickens in the US and need stronger, meatier legs to stand up.
I agree. Phoenix legs sure are tasty. There's something in that sauce!
*barf*
My uncle, RIP, loved chicken feet. Boil 'em to get 'em soft and tender, then flour and fry 'em. Chicken feet are a common occurrence in the South but then again so is pig brain with eggs, chitlerings and tripe.
My parents love them. I'll eat a couple when we order them but I don't chow down like my parents do. They're okay...nothing special. I say sell them to the Chinese if they're willing to pay that much for em!
@iamlost26: It is REALLY unpleasant when you bite into a weak bone and it snaps.
@pecan 3.14159265: Yeah, same goes for frogs and octopus.
yes because that's the kind of rational thinking that got us into the mess to begin with. I don't hate Obama but this has got to be one of this biggest mistakes he has done yet (and he's made a few)
You do not want a trade war with China and he keeps trying to. first he had the "Buy American" clause in the initial bailouts then that was removed. Now he has the Chinese tire tax. I mean seriously does he not have enough czars to make him understand that a Trade war in china will only kill our economy?
And the best is some idiot thinks their love of chicken feet will over power their national interests in making money? If anything the Chinese will start to fatten up their chickens and tell their citizens that eating Chinese chicken is good for the country. Who's gonna tell them other wise?
@Veeber: Yeah. I was in China a while back and I took a cooking class from a Chinese lady (there were Europeans and Australians in the class with me). We cooked chicken wings because it's got the best flavor. That's what the Chinese do, anyway. THAT I understand. What I was so surprised at, though, was how terrified all the students were at eating any chicken with bones in it. Some of them flatly refused to eat chicken that had bones in it. I guess the problem is worse than I thought.
The Chinese want us for our "Jumbo, Juicy" feet?!
C'mon, I know euphemism when I see it. We all know which jumbo, juicy what-sis they really want us for.
And it too is made for some damned fine eating!!
@pecan 3.14159265: Err, no.
As one who has had Blood Pizza, cooked blood cubes, balut, gummy tendons, Fugu, raw, live, squirmy octopus, cooked testicles and peen, live shrimp and (I could go on, believe me, I could go on), chicken feet rank at the bottom of the list.
...Although they're GREAT for scaring small children with, so there's that.
chicken feet = the new opium.
Many Filipinos in the US love chicken feet so store caught on and started raising the prices. It is called Adidas in the Philippines.
@Xerloq wants to...: Squids and octopi usually have one boney beak. It's about the texture of a fingernail and tastes about as good. You eat around it and spit it out.
I love chicken wings but the feet? Bleah.
People, people.
Did everyone miss the _"MR. AHO"_ name here?
Why laugh about feet when an AHO is available for joking?
@pecan 3.14159265: I'm not a huge fan of chicken feet, actually (I always heard it referred to as dragon feet) but I loooove me some jellyfish.
@Skankingmike: The reality is that we need to do something before we lose our remaining mfg. plants in the US. Tire companies were being undercut by Chinese made tires a good 30%, and therefore stood/stand no real chance in the retail market.
Cooper Tires, a tire-maker from my hometown, had closed one of their manufacturing facilities this year because of this, stripping about 1,100 jobs. They were saying they might have to close another as well, because they simply couldn't compete with the price of Chinese imports. I don't remember the exact number - but Chinese tire imports had quadrupled since 2001, which is.. unfair trade.
Maybe you're not worried about the Chinese's ability to drastically undercut the prices of virtually everything made in the US, but that's largely why we're in the predicament we're in - it's cheaper to make anything elsewhere than here, and we're left with no good blue-collar jobs. The exodus is still on-going, and it's about damn time someone started putting a stop to it.
Step into any Chinese restaurant serving dim sum, and you'll see chicken feet. I've had it before, and it can be tasty if you just get over what it is and what it looks like. Same with tripe and intestine.