San Francisco Chinatown Chicken Feet

Visiting a culinary mecca like the San Francisco Bay area and reporting first on stinging nettles and then chicken feet could seem strange. But wait! Next post will be mostly about meat and potatoes---as served at Thomas Keller's ad hoc in Yountsville.

Unique Culinary Adventures has covered chicken feet before, namely a stew from The Black Family Reunion Cookbook, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1991. This wonderful stew bore little resemblance to chicken feet as typically prepared in restaurants----namely Chinese restaurants. I've also fixed chicken feet from Chinese recipes at home before. They were no match for what the Grand Palace has been turning out at 950 Grant Avenue in San Francisco's Chinatown.

My reason for being there wasn't about chicken feet, but to try combo of duck feet and duck wings that were listed on the menu posted outside. Duck feet would have been a new experience, and I was eager to compare the Grand Palace's duck wings with the Irish style barbecued duck wings from Silver Hill Foods that Unique Culinary Adventures featured on December 13, 2005 . Unfortunately, the Grand Palace was out of the duck wings and duck feet. Since they'd already served me a pot of tea, I settled for the chicken feet.

I sample chicken feet as dim sum at several different restaurants each year and have never enjoyed them so much as here at the Grand Palace.