Mmmm, chicken feet

We ate chicken feet on Saturday. And by “we,” I do not mean me.

Friends from church took us to a dim sum restaurant to prepare Amy for her upcoming mission trip to China. In a mere 18 days, Amy will fly halfway across the globe to spend a week as a counselor at a camp for orphans. She’ll be teamed with one or two campers and a translator and will spend the whole week living life with her campers. They’ll participate in VBS-type activities, as well as swimming and nightly singing. (You can read more about the organization here.)

Upon hearing about Amy’s trip, Margie invited us to have lunch so Amy could taste authentic Chinese food, the kinds she can expect to encounter during her trip.  It was quite the experience.

Margie, Billy and son Travis gave us a tour of the buffet that was loaded down with all types of foods that looked precious little like any Chinese food I’d ever seen before. All kinds of dumplings, fried rice, spicy tofu, noodles and lots of other things; I really should have made notes. But the one thing I couldn’t forget is the chicken feet.

Margie told us this is a common food, and that most people eat it by putting the foot in your mouth and gnawing at it until you tear a piece of the foot off. You then gnaw at the piece in your mouth, getting off as much meat as possible, then you spit out the bone.

Margie, demonstrating proper chicken foot etiquette

All I could think was our pastor, a notoriously picky eater, would starve if he went to China.

Michael and Amy, trying chicken foot

Amy was a champ – she gave it all a try, as did Michael and Sean. Rebecca and I passed on the chicken foot, but tried most everything else. (I felt a little bit bad about not trying the chicken foot. Then I remembered it was a chicken foot and instantly felt better about my decision.) We all, though, were anxious to give Travis’s dessert recommendation a try; the mango pudding was excellent.

Many, many thanks to Margie and Billy and Travis for showing us the dim sum ropes, and for making sure Amy had a clue about what she’s going to eat when she’s in China. We are grateful for such amazing friends!