Why did the chicken cross the road?

To escape from the chef, of course!

So far we have had two meals involving a whole chicken – our lunch in Daxu (mentioned in an earlier post) and a recent dinner in which we unknowingly ordered chicken soup. This has prompted me to delve deeper into the fascinating topic of Chinese chickens – dead and alive. How are they different from American chickens? How are they similar? Are Chinese chickens communists? Sadly, I am only able to answer two of these questions with my accumulated knowledge. The political standing of Chinese chickens is anyone’s guess. 

Firstly, I can confidently confirm that Colonel Sander’s empire has indeed extended to the Sino-Tibetan region. A KFC can be found reliably in any major city, such that greasy fried chicken is happily consumed from Beijing to Guilin. Unfortunately for any hopeful Americans, the mashed potato and corn on the cob portions are disappiontinigly small, to say the least. On the bright side, the fried chicken still retains its delicious, crunchy taste.

Now let’s move to the countryside, where chickens roam freely through ancient villages and family gardens. Unbeknownst to these blissful birds, they might soon become someone’s lunch! Because many restaurants lack the money and space to keep meat chilled, it’s much more convenient to keep their poultry in the back yard where they can be “prepared” as soon as someone orders the stir fried chicken. It’s not uncommon for us to see wandering chickens on our bike rides and hikes, and we often joke that they are our next meal!

Enough live chickens already! While we were enjoying our breakfast one morning we spotted a woman washing chickens in a bowl of water. While it looked like they were rubber chickens, the way all the feathers had been already been cleaned off, we knew better. Upon closer inspection, we noticed that a man inside a nearby shack was butchering a chicken with a large knife. We couldn’t see the chicken (probably for the better) but we suspected it was being cut up into little bits. Chicken soup, anyone?

-Luke