"Ding Sung" Chicken Feet

My friend and co-worker Qiurong Ruan treated our little production team to Dim Sum (which she told us is really pronounced "Ding Sung") at her favorite Chinese restaurant "The Golden Dragon" today. Qiurong has searched high and low since moving to the U.S. for the most authentic Chinese food and has happily settled on this place because of their Dim Sum. I had never had it before, but had always wanted to try it, so I was really excited. When we asked her what was good (since the menu was pretty much all in Chinese) the first thing she said was the chicken feet. She said that they are a delicacy in China and very hard to prepare. Rebecca and I were both a little hesitant, but because she was so insistent, we both promised to try them. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what on earth there could possibly be to eat on a chicken foot until the dish arrived and Rebecca and I watched in horror as Qiurong tore into them, holding them with her chop sticks (not an easy task by the way) and ripping the slimy skin off the bone with her teeth. Skin! Thats IT! All that difficult preparation for a few square inches of slimy chicken skin!! Rebecca couldn't even get past picking it up with her chopsticks before she got sick and gave up. I managed to eat about half, but I couldn't get passed the feel of bony chicken toes in my mouth. BLEK! NO THANK YOU! Needless to say we stopped her from ordering snake or snake skin or mice or anything else of the sort, but I did give it a fair shake, and the rest of the food was fabulous! I've never had a better pot sticker, and several of the other things I tried were fantastic as well. All in all, Dim Sum was a good experience, and I managed to eat the whole meal without a fork under Qiurong's chop stick tutelage (she said I used them like a real Chinese person). In summary, I recommend Dim Sum if you've never tried it, but take my advice and steer clear of chicken feet!