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They can appear in any province as a beer snack, cold dish, soup or main dish. In Guangdong and Hong Kong, they are popularly deep-fried and steamed first to make them puffy, then simmered in a sauce flavored with black fermented beans or abalone. Around the mainland, marinated versions can be stewed with soy sauce, Sichuan peppercorns, cloves, garlic, star anise, cinnamon and chili flakes. Bai yun feng zhao is a popular cold dish redolent with rice wine, rice vinegar and minced ginger. In southern China, chicken feet are cooked with raw peanuts to make a thin soup.
And that's just on the table: Packaged chicken feet jam the racks of modern grocery stores and supermarkets as a snack, often seasoned with rice vinegar and chili, or salt-baked and vacuum-packed, ready to eat.
US expats might be surprised to learn that most chicken feet served in China are imported from their fellow Americans.
"In fact, with such low margins, the chicken feet (or "paws") business has been subsidizing the US chicken business for years," says Michael Rosenblum, chef at the US embassy in Beijing, who once whipped up a batch for the Chengdu Agricultural Trade Office. "It probably would have gone bust a long time ago if not for that."
China joined the WTO in 2001, and two years later approved the direct import of US chicken feet. As of June 2011, 1 kilogram of raw chicken feet cost 12 ($1.88) to 16 yuan in China, compared to 11-12 yuan for the same amount of frozen chicken breast.
Just as not all foreigners are horrified to find Chicken McKnuckles on their plates, not all Chinese embrace this "delicacy".
During a trip last year to Guizhou province, my neighbor Randy was dining with a Chinese colleague in a traditional restaurant.
"A platter of delicious-looking chicken feet was delivered and a succulent sample was dropped on his plate," he recalls. "The colleague's home was in Guizhou, so he knew all about this delicacy and I thought he would savor it. Instead, he wrinkled his nose in disgust, picked up the claw with two fingers and quickly passed it to the meek-looking foreigner sitting beside him. 'I won't eat that!' he said."
