Either this photo turns you off, puking and grossed out or make you feel like rushing out for a plate of braised chicken legs. I hope I have captured this photo in its most appealing and appetising state, with the right angle and lighting. I had ta-paued (take home) these legs and hence, able to experiment with the photo taking. I took the bowl of legs from room to room for the ideal photo due to bad lighting at home. (My camera only bad point is its sensitivities to poor lighting. Moreover, when one capture photos in macro mode, one cannot use the flash or else the photo will be too bright.)
There is an art to eating braised chicken legs. Put the whole leg into the mouth. Twitch, suck, twitch the mouth and ptttooooi/spit, out comes the bones. Tiny pieces of bones all over the table. If you are eating in a group, then, compete and see whose pile of bones is the highest. But certainly do not order chicken legs on your first date! Horrors!
Usually, braised chicken legs have dried Chinese mushrooms. It is basically, chicken legs deep fried in oil (or some don’t fry them) and braised for a long time in soya sauce, cinnamon, star anise and 5-spice powder (my guess only).
The end result is sticky, gelatinous, mush of skin with a nice soya sauce base. I don’t fancy chicken legs but for the sake of this blog, decided to get some for conversation piece. Remember, many poor chickens are sacrificed for this blog. There is also duck’s web which is much tastier but rare. And goose’s web is considered a delicacy, not easily found in Malaysia.
So, are you game enough to try eating some chicken legs?
