On 27 Oct 2008 01:59:25 GMT, elaich wrote:

> Mark Thorson > wrote in :
>
>> I think the proprietors must
>> have been from rural China or someplace where it is
>> considered perfectly normal to serve a chicken dish
>> in which the chicken has been hacked up with a cleaver,
>> no attempt has been made at deboning, and it's left to
>> the customer to pick out the meat --
>
> I used to eat at a place like that in Isleton, CA back in the 80s. They had
> the best food I have ever eaten. Elderly Chinese couple ran the place.
>
> There was a more glitzy place up the street where the food wasn't nearly as
> good. Once, the proprietor of that place ran out into the street to tell me
> "I saw her getting food out of our garbage!" Okay.
>
> These people understood how to use black beans in Chinese cooking.
> Everything they served was smoky with the black beans. The best Chinese
> food I ever ate.
>
> Hell, when I eat at home, I may have to extract the chicken from the bone
> myself. It's home cooking.

this was my reaction, too, elaich. i'm not sure i would want to eat the
chicken with bones, but it's probably authentic.

your pal,
blake