see lai, part one

sometimes i like to imagine what would have happened if my parents never emigrated to the u.s. - what would i be doing? once i asked my mom "hey mom if i grew up in hong kong would i be working at cathay pacific?" "YOU WISH!" thanks, mom. at any rate, while we were in hong kong we ate a really delicious homeade soup with chicken feet and papaya. i've tried a few chinese soup recipes, but never really ventured far from the winter melon, pork, carrots, watercress combo. i like to think that this soup keeps me and j strong! uncle google came up with a few recipes so tonight i bought a pound of chicken feet (i'm semi-familiar to the guys at the chicken store here in town so he threw in some extra feet for free) and other things to make the soup. at the herb store i couldn't quite come up with the name for feet in cantonese so i dumbly gestured to my own sneaker clad feet until i came up with the word, and the nice lady suggested other things to throw into the soup.

the recipe suggested "trimming the claws off" the feet, and i have to say, this task was pushing my squeamishness. i've handled catfish before and scared myself silly when idly grabbing a piece, and coming up with the face and my fingers wedged in its eye socket, but the chicken feet were a new level of discomfort. they looked like wrinkled people hands, i guess would be the best way to describe it, and i don't think any of us are that comfy picking up individual hands to chop off at the nails.

 hey there.

i hope it turns out well!