Conchita Calimlim packs chicken feet at Pacific Poultry Co. By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin

How come there's no extra crispy chicken feet?

Don't cackle. It turns out that KFC might be missing out on a cultural best bet.

In Chinatown, at least, it sometimes costs more to buy a bundle of the rubbery yellow phalanges than it does to buy the entire bird above the ankles.

Ewa Beach resident Nathan Yuen first alerted us to this phenomenon, via a query he sent on the Internet.

"During my jaunt through Chinatown to purchase soybeans and mangoes (recently), I noticed that several meat stalls were selling chicken feet for $1.54-$1.69/lb.," wrote Yuen, who works in the Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development at the University of Hawaii. "Whole chickens (sans feet) on the other hand were going for $1.39-$1.59/lb. ... Makes you wonder, yeah?"

Made us wonder, although a newsroom query brought forth the fact that chicken feet are a delicacy that many people - not just epicures - are moved to order in many cultures. The prevailing method of consumption, according to the lip smackers, involved the: 1. "Fleshy pads" 2. "Toes" 3. "Gelatinized toes." The verb "sucking" was commonly used.

It turns out that chicken feet are BIG at dim sum restaurants, where people order a plate or bowl of feet with their siu mai.

Panda Cuisine owner Daniel Leung said chicken feet, collectively, is one of the 10 best-selling items on his dim sum list, something patrons DEMAND every day.

All dim sum restaurants will have chicken feet, "for sure," he said, while Chinese restaurants that don't serve dim sum "normally" will not offer it on the menu.

People who order chicken feet are "mainly Chinese and local Oriental," according to Leung. "Some local Japanese may have it, but not a lot. And people from Japan or Caucasians, they do not touch it at all."

At Panda Cuisine, a popular preparation is deep-frying the feet "so that the skin pops out a little bit," then to steam it with black bean sauce, fresh chili and oyster sauce.

While it's best to have fresh feet, the supply is limited in Hawaii, Leung said, so he often relies on frozen feet.

When Kamuela-based chef/caterer/food stylist/consultant Faith Ogawa was in town recently, she made it a point to get her fix of feet at Hee Hing Restaurant.

"I was brought up eating that kind of food in Waipahu," she explained. "My (Okinawan) grandma used to kill her own chicken, boil (the feet) and put it in soup."

Ogawa also remembers her sugar plantation neighbors hosting a lot of "chicken fights." Afterward, the losers ended up on the dinner table, sometimes feet and all.

Her favorite way to eat da feet? Either in soup - "I like all the gelatin" - or "Chinese style, with black beans."

But while she loves to gnaw on the feet, Ogawa says she'll stick to chicken breast for her menus. "I don't think the clientele - I cater to a lot of multimillion-dollar homes - are into it," she laughed.

Although Leung and Ogawa don't see many Caucasians ordering chicken feet, it's not a delicacy unique to Asian cuisine. My mother-in-law, who won't even think of eating sashimi, fondly remembers chicken feet soup for dinner growing up in a Czechoslovakian family in Pennsylvania.

Kaneohe resident Howard Sussman, a rehab counselor recouping at home following a liver transplant, said he knows about chicken feet because he's Jewish. As far as he can tell, the Chinese and Jews are particularly fond of chicken feet.

There are three things that make chicken feet so popular, he said. "They really taste good. Believe it or not, they taste like chicken. Their texture appeals to both Jews and Chinese because there's a gelatinous, fatty content to them.

"Then there's the fact, if you like things with bones, they've got a lot of bones to chew around," Sussman said.

The Jewish culture uses the feet in fricasees and as thickeners in soup, he said.

And, "Nobody ever believes this, but in Hong Kong, during intermissions at the cinema, chicken feet are sold by vendors that have cleaned, blanched and skinned them," he said. They're seasoned with something like five spice powder then charcoal grilled.

"The best part is the fleshy part of the pad, but the toes are wonderful, too," he said.

All this waxing eloquent about bony appendages leaves Brent Hancock scratching his head.

"There are so many nicer things to eat on a chicken, why eat the feet?" joked Hancock, vice president of operations for Pacific Poultry Co., the state's only wholesaler of fresh island chicken.

Last year, Pacific Poultry sold 77,000 pounds (they don't count 'em by the feet) of chicken feet, which is nowhere near the poundage of poultry sold. (The entire process by which a chicken and its parts are separated, cleaned and packaged at Pacific Poultry is another fascinating story in itself.)

Hancock said the company sells the feet "for considerably less than the whole fryer," although he declined to say how much cheeper, er cheaper.

He surmised that the feet may be more expensive primarily because of the good old law of supply and demand. During certain times of the year, he'd like "to have an eight-footed chicken with eight to nine gizzards. Too bad we can't re-engineer the chicken."

Not only are feet hot, so are the heart, liver, gizzard and assorted other parts.

Reflecting the cultural tradition, "the feet mainly go to Chinatown," Hancock said. Some supermarkets will also buy a few, though "very little," he said.

At Oahu Market's Chicken Cradle stall in Chinatown, there were a lot of chickens but none of their feet by mid-morning one recent Friday. "Ours are not as expensive as the chicken ($1.50/lb. for feet vs. $2.50/lb. for fresh island chicken)," nor as high as some other stalls, said Suzan, who declined to give her last name. "But it's still pretty high because it's a demand," she said, predicting that "pretty soon, price going up" even more.

"Old Chinese ladies, they tell us we should eat the chicken feet because we stand all day. It's good for the legs."

Mrs. A. Young, who used to run a chop suey house in Liliha, remembers when chicken feet sold for mere chicken feed - 19- to 29-cents-a-pound.

"We would buy about 10 pounds of chicken," she said. "Chicken feet were so cheap, the seller would throw in a couple extra of them for free.

"Now everything is expensive," Young said. "Everything costs money." She sees the feet going for around $1.49/lb., compared to $1.09/lb. for a whole chicken on sale.

Young blames the high price on many factors, including the increase in Asian immigrants here who eat the feet both for enjoyment and medicinal purposes. She also pointed out that while there are many meaty parts to a chicken, there's a limited supply of feet: Only two per bird.

But don't stop at chicken feet on your culinary tour. Sussman said if you want a real treat, you can't beat duck feet.

Ogawa, meanwhile, says there's nothing like devouring fish "head, eyeballs, brains - I eat all that area. It's really healthy."

10 large chicken feet, toenails removed and feet cut in half
1-inch piece fresh ginger, crushed
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 large ripe tomato
1 small onion, sliced
Pinch MSG
2-ounce package long rice, soaked (optional)

If desired, add long rice and cook 5 minutes, or until long rice becomes translucent.

Makes 6 servings.

1 pound chicken feet
4 ounces Karo light corn syrup
4 cups vegetable oil
1 round onion, chopped
1 small piece ginger, sliced
Chinese parsley roots
4 whole star anise

2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1-1/2 teaspoons cooking wine or sherry
1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash sesame oil
Dash white pepper
1-1/2 tablespoons fermented black beans
1 tablespoon chopped green onion
1-1/2 teaspoons chopped garlic
2 hot red chile peppers, thinly sliced

Chop each foot into 3 pieces - the leg and 2 halves of foot.

To blanch chicken feet, bring 4 cups water to a boil, add corn syrup and remove from heat. Soak chicken feet in hot syrup mixture 10 minutes; remove, drain and let stand 10 minutes.

Heat oil and fry chicken feet 3 minutes or until golden brown.

Bring 4 cups fresh water to a boil. Add chicken feet, onion, ginger, parsley roots and star anise; boil 30 minutes. Remove chicken feet and drain. To marinate chicken feet, combine oyster sauce, wine, sugar, salt, sesame oil and white pepper. Add chicken feet and mix thoroughly. Add remaining marinade ingredients and marinate 4 hours or overnight in refrigerator.

Place chicken feet in a heatproof dish and steam 12 minutes.

Makes 5 servings.