‘Grisly tales’ and ‘gory details’ are not words synonymous with Chinese New Year (unless one counts the updating of the relatives that some of us are dread to do), and so this story by chinatownboy is rather unusual – a tale of blood, gore and decapitation!

cc image by NYCArthur

Of course, you might have guessed from the picture that the blood and guts and gore story has to do with food rather than human beings. The last time you had a roast chicken or duck, you probably bought it roasted and cut straight from the store, or bought chilled chicken and duck from the butcher. When was the last time, if ever, you have to buy fresh poultry and, ahem, prepare them for cooking? chinatownboy describes the process:

[WARNING: Gory details here, not meant for the faint hearted]
Come eve of the Chinese New Year, there was no time for sleep. Up early, I was to help Mum to kill the chicken and duck. Under the supervision of Mum, I either held the chicken by the head and body to make it still while Mum used a sharp knife to slit the throat, or the other way round. Once the blood started flowing out, I was to make sure that the blood flowed to a bowl. Yes, it was edible and nothing was to be left to waste, save the feathers.

Trying to take out the feather (defeather?) was a task. Hot boiling water was to put into a basin and the dead bird put into the hot water and then, to the cold water. It was to help plucking out the feathers. Taking out the big feathers was easy. Taking out the fine ones was a chore. And so, that was left to me to do. With a “plucker” (akin to the tweezer), I sat on a tiny stool and worked on my assignment. Taking out the fine feathers from the duck was more challenging than the chicken. And I had to do a good job or we might have feathers when we ate.

These days, food preparation during Chinese New Year is much easier, with many families opting to go out to a restaurant during the celebration or buying catered meals to have in the family home. But for families that opt to prepare their own meals, there is a feeling a communality out of all the hard work in the kitchen. Read about the preparation for a Chinese New Year reunion dinner feast in chinatownboy’s post here.