The Skinny on Skin

Never too late for an ah-ha momma moment.

You'll recall that the learning curve on feeding a newly arrived 3-year-old from China has been fairly steep. Here's what I've learned about eating chicken:

1. white meat = blech, yuck, not in a million years!

2. dark meat = maybe, unless peanut sauce smothers it...in which case it becomes a definitely yes.

3. chicken skin = absolutely, positively, a hundred times, YES!

How did I figure this out?

I took GG to an Asian grocery and stopped at the deli counter for lunch. I asked him what he wanted. He enthusiastically pointed to a chicken dish, so I bought some. When I started cutting it into GG-sized pieces, I noticed that quite a bit of it was still lavishly covered in skin. So I included a few chunks. He proceeded to pick through the meal, carefully finding and eating all the skin before even considering the meat. Well, duh, Mom. That's probably what he ate in China!

So when I cooked chicken this week, I cut up several pieces of skin for him. (BTW, although I have NO interest in eating it myself, I don't feel too badly about feeding it to him because it's locally grown, free range, "good stuff.") He ate it all up and immediately asked for seconds. After dinner I saved all the remaining skin, freezing it into bite-sized bits for the next time he says "We're hungry." (He often speaks of himself using plural pronouns.)

Ya learn something new everyday.