Chicken Cutting Service

Bet the security guards got a laugh at me taking the photo!

It's Friday and I'm a little tired after a week of school.

 (Did I mention that there are no planning or prep periods?)

 Anyway, as I dragged myself into the grocery store on the way home with no shopping plan besides a hope that something "fresh" looking (and smelling) would jump out at me and say "Cook me," this poster appeared before my eyes.

At first glance I didn't absorb the words and kept trudging on towards the cash machine. Malaysian Ringletless (RM), I was hoping (and praying) that the ATM would be dispensing cash so I could go back to the store and find that special "something" for dinner.

A couple of seconds later, the words on the poster registered in my tired brain.

 Whole Chicken - Without Head or Feet - Cutting Service.

A smile tugged at my cheeks and I started chuckling. This simple poster, most likely never to be seen in the US, defines so many things...

- a culture where the words "whole chicken" really does mean the entire chicken including the head and feet.
- a hypermarket (local word for supermarket) that is trying to attract and keep foreign customers by removing the parts of the chicken that we consider extremely unappetizing.
- a "cutting service" where we can choose a "whole" chicken (without the head or feet today, of course) from a pile of ice and ask that it be chopped up with a meat cleaver into pieces of equal size complete with chunks of bone, slivers of wings, or pieces of backbone all conveniently and quickly chopped to be about the same size.

Anyway, getting back to the chicken feet....

Interestingly enough, chicken feet are a real delicacy over here (some students have even told me it's their favorite meal), so I'm guessing that this "Whole Chicken Cut Up" advertising promotion is a win-win for foreigners and locals alike.

The locals can enjoy the tasty crunch, crunch of the feet and claws, while the foreigners can savor the fat and calories of the legs, thighs and breasts.

I'm wondering, however, who gets to enjoy head. Come to think of it, maybe that really was a chicken beak floating in my noodles and broth a few weeks ago...

Bottom line - the poster helped me to end the week with a smile.