Chocolate Crunch Cookies sot 2 besten whe Disle tepid i easpoon et eter andi seraately with 2/scup lured with Capa st nya seup chopped nuts tnd pours of Nes Yellow abel Ch Ine aro cut ine poste sie ope. Flava with epee a and dea hy the alteaponfuont agree ole set, Bae 10 tors mints inapre heated SP ane. Makes 100 coker capa baee Ad /peadl brown and gra eke eee et Seka P99 8) Shirley Geok-lin Lim Boiled Chicken Feet and Hundred-Year-Old Eggs: Poor Chinese Feasting Inch homage tothe doen ane king oer uth nthe Chios cm iyo Malin, the et a emit Shey Gelli Li 94 oe eyo the gro etene okie of Aweicenicd "Chae barry sale fare Proms fi ders. and eioer sd fo the mgr me se a fe her aay hot "aran a aat-vaeing suv” Ameria coking lobar a which the unbearable Socom ayo ee ver tthe en ica even ont f te cheap te “wimp esting” ily aby. ‘You must eat chicken fot until you ate 2 married woman!” my aunts ‘warned me “Otherwise you wll row upto run aay rom your husband” They sat around the dining table, an unstable jolntue af od planks stained by years of sya-sauce dip and scorched bythe ashy embers that, lays fll ut ofthe smal coal oven under the metal hot po which was fetched out once a yea for Chinese New Year fanily feasts. They chewed ‘om gld-brown chicken fet that had been bled with ginger garlic sugar, and back soy, Theft looked ike skinny elegant batons with stared horny toes atone end, thei speckled skins glossy with caramelized col, but chicken fet all the same. My aunts and stepmother gnawed at the small bones, grinding the ello cartilage ofthe ligaments audibly and the bone splinter piled up bsie ther plats. would not stay to watch them. hadseen hens and roosters pick thei fet ‘through fungal monsoon miu, stepping on dack and dog anther ow shi ‘My stepmother rlsed poultry on ou leftovers and on chopped swamp ‘vegetation which sprouted lvihly in the greenish slimy wasteland behind tur hous, and on festival days she slaughtered atlas two it chickens for ‘usher five stepchildren, two sons, and cherished husband. Chicken was aIxury we tasted only on these days, on Chinese New Year, Ching Ming the Mid-Auturnn Festival andthe Feast of the Hungry Ghost An then, nthey were children, the chick ‘ns were divided according to gender, the father receiving the white breast reat the sons the dark drumsticks, andthe daughters the skinay backs, amy auntstold ws ws the practice even Wh ‘while the women at heft and wings. 'As the nly daughter ina family (then) of seven bays was excused from sich discrimination and ook my tar equally with dhe deumsticks, the fvorte meat for ll of ns Chicken was always sold whole and freshly slaughtered, and no oe imagined then that one could make a dish solely of icks or of chicken breasts Such mass marketing was possible swith the advent of refrigeration, and although cofee shops in town held large indtral ied refrigerator for serving shaved ied concoctions and ‘old sods, poplar refreshments among Malaysians to fend off the humid quatorial temperatures, Chinese Malaysians, like most Asians inthe 9508, ‘would eat only fresh fod. We thought of frozen meat as rotten, all rma ‘warm scented goodness ofthe freshly killed and gathered gone, and in its place the monochromatic bind mush of thawed stl Bi only fr the gar age pl Sill while no one sold chicken parts separately, rsh chicken feet were always available the wet market; you could buy them by the ils a deli ‘acy toe enjoyed, acording to my elders. only by married women, Wel let my aunts and stepmother sick on those spintery lames. was never ‘comfortable at the rble when those eet appeared when the women waved aban. A bad was not to be trusted me away foe them. My mater had rn away fom her ‘woman, a runaway wile, ast mother. A young gil With thate chicken feet, not when I ha miy mother’ history in my blood my mothers fice on my fice still recognizable to my aunts, my thers brother wives good wives and mothers eventhough it had een ives, seven years since she rata. Toul no fice the leathery skin i hours of amering. And the soft padded soles tha my aunts delighted in ‘hewing-it was here thatthe chicken came closet tothe buman anatomy: pads like the at fet of my steph’ babies. Even now. now that Ihave (grown to becerae 2 wilh dnd wnothes Whe aspratents nl dedpensclend lesa ‘runaway mothe, no eat chicken feet no matter how much wine, ca remember the tiny damon, cans, hones, or ginger his seeped th ‘bones, the crunch of skin and cardage Lremember my mother most forty Yeats ter. ving sn the United States, um constantly re minded of how "Chinese" has become a fetish for Americans loking for transcending experience of dference ad otherness Ranging frm white ‘models with stark lek eyeliner aed chopsticks inthe chignonsto"happy” dressing gowas that copy karatetype wnifirms, things assacited with Chinese culture pervade mainstream Amicricn imagination, suggesting, ‘through the fixed acquiement of a traditional nlc taste-for ble china, fr nstace or take-out shrinpin lobster sauce—that ivorous consumers athe than Eurocentric keologues. Parveyor of such US "multicultural, however sally disguise the terial eurces of thie goods Diference sto be softened transformed before can be assinuated int Middle America, Soslsowith Chines fod, ‘hich, before Nixons wis to China in 1972, was sold in thousands of small, restaurants ouside of Chinatown as egg ols, eg foo yung, chow mein, and fortune cookies none of which was recognizable tome who had grown, ‘up eating home-cooked Chinese food in Malaya. Influenced by the i ‘eae in Astan iumigation tote United Stats aftr the 196 HartCelle ‘Actand tic years afer Mao"Tue-tungintonkcated the Nixon presidential party with maa and exotic ten-course banquets, many Americans have Tearmed to dine on “authentic” Chinese food scrom a numberof replnal ‘uisines, fom the mld, flavorful fesh steamed shes of Canton. to the salty ery peppers of Szechwan and Hanan and the sch elaborate food of ‘the Shanghainese, But mid-Manhuataneestaurant and Chinese cookbooks newer note the particular dishes peculiar te Old One Hunded-Nate, what the Chines call the mann the street. These dishes have bren the ordinary {are fr billions of poor Chinese through the cent hungry hid ina fly of a0 many children and never enough money sand for myself a8 While the chicken fet my aunts feasted on was forbidden to me, Las repeatedly coaxed to taste pe te-an, the only other dish in my fanised Sei aha Paecidine tae Ttieecdodketgys!tmpdeted fram Chinn, hadof ud and stra then ten selected fr thei age sz, covered with am stored ina darkened space frat least a month, covered with elath that had carbonate, You had to knock the dled grey mn crack and peel mpregnated with sod ‘mantle of rd gently ol, wash the epgsin old water. ric vapor dense collection of chemical from decaying things ‘borne chemical traces that trigger the salivary glands of saves etry ured Father was especialy fond of pl t-an, what the expensive rest called bund year-old eggs which my stepmother always served sliced thin in seetions of eighth accompanied by shred pinky young ginger Pickled in sugared vinegar He believed twas poh, all of medicinal prop ‘ties that stimulated blood ctcuation, cleansed the liver and kidneys, sharpened the eyesight and hearing and elevated the male Mba, and my stepmother a generation younger than he diligent served it asa cold rel ino ac ny steaming sce porridge o alone a late-night sack, ‘Occasionally Father shared this delicacy with us. My brothers hung greedily over him. waiting for their one-eighth sliver of slippery shining jet-blackegg, which was served draped witha vinegary mol ginger shred Approaching pei tran fr the fist te. hough is listening Back eax pac and iridescent gren-blck yolk beaut, a magical gem cut open for inspection, But then its acrid tench shot up my olfactory glands opening passageways more powerfilly than a tongueful of green mustard, and I sagged, as clase to vomiting over foo as I would ever get. Unlike boiled ‘ick fet which I could ignore by resolutely avin the tbl, pi t-0n pursed meont ofthe kitchen, ou aftheliving ate, andout ofthe house smell of pellation fered each tne Father elle ou for sto come and eat sone hundred-year-ld egy Atsome point in ‘ei ta-an pinched my ost else and opened may mouth fo the ver, Ie lsvor an texture ws ke noth ny chuldhood, however, drawn by my brothers Tus for 1g Thad ever tasted the combination of the jelied whit-turned-t-black and the tightly packed purple-back heart igniting on my taste buds as in intrieate instantaneous sensation of bitter ‘end swect; roby and density uidatijehilhiaieaaaneae Primitively chemleal and iefibly original. was hooked. But pei tan although not expensive, was what my stepmather bought fr Father lane forhis helt, his pleasure is ibid A morsel would always be our share ofthis pleasure Late onthe evening that frst tasted pital walked out tothe Chinese grocery stove atthe corner ofthe main road and spent some of ry cache of ‘coins hourded fom the dollars tht my mother fa away in another country rmalled me once or twica year [bought 0 eggs jacketed in dan stra, Whilemy brothers wer playing Monopolyin the front oom, [sneaked into the itchen, broke open the armor. carefully crazy-racked the shell pele the pie all the ime marveling at the scent that had set ny salvs owing, and ate them slowly reveling in the gentle chewy texture of thealburain andthe heavy metalic yolky overload My stepmather was right. Eating pei te-anwaslibidinous experience. have grown accustomed tothe absence ofstong flavor and scent neo, livngin the United States Many Americans appear o prefer thelrmealsas antiseptic as ther bathrooms. The movement toward "eal foods scems tome tobe yet anather progression towand banning the reck. bloodines, and decay four seavenging pst and instaling technologically controlled and sietifcally scrtinized det, In some future time, humans may ive to ‘hundred and ity yeas dining on a mass-produced nutritious eisine of “natural fods” based on grains, vegetables and rots. Boiled chicken fet and chemically preserved eggs wl become gros memories from a horrible ‘story of animal abuse and carcinogenic plsoning But inthe meantime, aillions of Aslansarestleating these dishes in search of. not. as my poor father who died young of threat cancer believed, health and longevity, t least adverse det that can kep them by and sou “Thus my eldest brother by now middle-aged and middle-clas pros ering, promised me a memorable breakfast when [vst him in Malacca jn 980.1 was Sunday as nthe West day for leisurely gatherings and per haps some family feasting, We drove tothe center of town, up through 2 narrow siden, and parked by an open ditch Under a palvanized th soo, ‘crowding with other fries, we ston lw stools around a smal ound ‘wooden table. as seared and tained asthe able around which weate nour hlldhood. The hawker, a Chinese Malaysian, was busy stirring an enormousbackened ron pt frm which clouds of steam pale up Smaller poscon- taining various dark and green mashes st on smaller gills ll fueled by {propane tank, Pouring the boiling liga rom the teapot, Eldest Brother sinsedthe bowls cups spoons. an chopsticks set before us Then woman the hawkers wife? daughter?filed our bows wih plain whit rice por- her than broken down into de watery: the grains soft but til sepa {glitinoos mass. From the many pots she brought diferent bawl-salted «abba cooked toa darkegeeen ssh with slabs of ork fat edge with a litle lean salted pickled cucumber erachy and sweet; hard-cooked and browned! bean curd ess chewy than the meat it was procesed a tate salted dried anchovies smaller than my itl finger fied cris with their heads on. Nothing was Fresh, everyting was feeshly cooked ‘igh in ny Bead lashed anit someting had always known bot never understood, How poor the mates of ordinary Chinese have been for snllenia a hove inventive unger has made them, How from the scraps, fll detritus and leflovers save eon the imperial maw; frm dys trerlords whe tated ay lost everything, peesant Chinese have created egrant and mouth-watering survival dre ly ads and lots ots tee hen and sated black beans, chicken et:intestinesand loud fungus and fermented bean mash, deed Pickled Jocks and seuwced destr; sh aw preserved egas.Nowonderasaebild was aught to rect myelders politely, ye Eest Auntie? Have you eaten ree, ‘Phitd Uncle?” Speakingin ou dialect, my stepmother til greets me, newly arrived from, “Have you cat rich Ameria thus, “Have you eaten?” The cook himself approached our table bearing two dishes expecially ‘ordered by my brother for me:soy-bolled chicken feet chopped ato sized pecesand pl aa cut a eights with a mound of pcked pager on the side My eles brother hu fguted me out; that, even alter decades of American fast foodsand the ich diet ofthe mid clans, ny deprived cil boo ad indelibly ise as gastrnomicntascs those dishes tupverised Chinese had produced out af the paltry ingredients they could afford This is perhaps the instruction to aa increasingly cons ing and consumed ‘planet thatthe cusine from China fers ot io lve. Aa we multi ning scarcity ‘and parsineny tn tlgsspboent detetiog Rickeg cep sideahigi lah aAe ‘ous billions wl all have to learn to eat wel preserved vegetables and hundred-year-ol eyes, balled chicken feet, and rice gruel, [knew my brother was offering me the best of our childhood together ‘Soy: Boiled Chichen Feet ropa ehihen et expeon alt ena ginger asbigat lange walt {elves sabe “Heupsberey ableton srmect ‘strane or texan Se pce omer pt 1 Wah chicken ot well, aking sur that claws te ped and soya eather lacked with weezer Stipthe yellow ater peri itl. 2. Fl lars pt wih we ne ah ent. When waters, ic chickn fein the pot and cok fr abot minutes then dean. {Fel leona of gar alles thin in rows Pel otc crosigh. “4 Patsoy ace sherry pager a. pppe. sie sar ani ee eet ee ee ree toa ight simmer andleae simmering about yanutes by which ie es shouldbe lingo thebanes: ‘Coal then chap noite sed pcre Serves4106, fea sipn ental g “Trough the Kitchen Widow, Arlene Vs Aan 97)