Yes, this is the stuff of “Who Dares Wins” — for people in the west that is. For us here in Asia, chicken feet are feet linkin’ good, especially when they are braised till the tendons have all been gelatinized and the flavours of the braising sauce have totally penetrated down to the bone. The wonderful thing about eating chicken feet is how much mileage you actually get out of it. A plate of these would set you back $2, but you would spend at least a good 15 minutes nibbling on the soft bits, getting at the crunchy bits and spitting out the spent metatarsal bones. And after you finish the whole plate, some might go back to the pile of bones to polish off any bits that you might have just missed out on.
Wanton Mee with everything $3.50
If you love chicken feet, you are going to love this place. Two adjectives that make every Singaporean happy are used to describe the food here — Cheap and Good. Cheap is great and Good is good, but put them together and you have basically promulgated our Singaporean manifesto. How cheap? Well a plate of wonton mee with chicken feet, pork ribs, char siew, fried wanton and boiled wanton will set you back $3.50. A plate of three chicken feet, (that’s nine long fingers of shiokness, 3 stubby thumbs of delight, plus 3 pads of pleasure) will only set you back $2. How Good? Well, the chicken feet come to you intact and only fall to pieces when you wrap your lips around it and start applying negative pressure. That perfectly fried skin which has been braised till its like soft tau pok skin slides right off so that you can spit the bones out in one breath. And the flavours are just perfectly balanced so that your whole mouth is tingled all at the same time. 4.5/5
Conclusion
Cheap? Cheeaaap. Good? Not good, verrrry Good. If you haven’t learnt about the pleasures of braised chicken feet, this is where you might want to start.