Fresh...

Yesterday I decided I would make some homemade fried chicken for me and the girls. I was in charge of the evening's activities and I thought a dinner at home would be nice, maybe play some games afterward followed by American Idol (thanks to Sarah's brother Greg!) So here is a quick synopsis of how it went:
I strolled on over to our new grocery store next door to our apartment. I look around for the vegetables I need and there are slim pickin's. I was a little bummed. I looked over at the meat section (this is a small store mind you) and noticed they are completely out of chicken. There's a few cow organs hanging on hooks but I'm not so sure that would taste good, even fried. I ask the little lady working, "are you all out of chicken?" I'm not really sure why I asked, I guess just making sure she wasn't holding out on me and had some in the back. Usually it's freshly laid out on ice so people can come up and pick up a nice leg and size it up. But today there wasn't even ice out! She replied, "ya, over there". (ok, obviously not in English) She walks me over to the slaughtering place in the back and points to cages of chicken. Now, you would think after living here a year and a half I would think, "ok, no problem." But this was a first for me. The man behind the counter says, "what size chicken do you want?" I just started laughing...then I said, "well, I have three people." He said, "ok, a small one." He takes the chicken out of it's cage, ties it's legs together and weighs it. He then gives me a receipt and tells me to pay at the front. At first I was really wondering if he realized I wanted him to kill it...surely he isn't just going to hand me a chicken!
Upon returning I see he is dipping the chicken in a scalding pot of something which I figure is to help the defeathering process...cause it did. All the feathers just seemed to fall off. So he must have killed it before that...so I kind of can't help but wonder how he did it. Maybe it was the Abby Roger's way of killing chickens...which would have been pretty cruel. At this point I'd like to remind you the chickens' friends are all sitting around in their cages watching this. Now, I'm not exactly an animal activist...not at all, but I do love animals and I thought this had to be some form of torture.
After the chicken is now completely naked, he takes this huge blow torch and torches it all over. I'm not so sure why they do this honestly...I thought of a couple of different reasons but now I wish I would have asked. Then he asks me if I'd like him to chop the chicken up. As he asks me I'm thinking, "do chickens bleed after you cut them? eww...yes, please cut it." During this whole process it seems like the store is getting warmer and warmer and I start getting a little woozey. Don't worry, I didn't pass out...but I felt like I might make a mess on the floor for sure.
So we're all done and the man hands me a plastic bag with my chicken parts and asks me if I'd like the "ji shui" and I say no thanks we don't drink the blood.
I got home and made sure to throw away the head, neck and feet.
This was definitely one of those days where I was reminded I live in Asia. I feel like after that I can do anything! Maybe I'll try and use eel in my next dish...I'm sure the roomies will love that!
Just to let you know the fried chicken actually turned out pretty good!