{"id":13656,"date":"2012-02-15T07:34:10","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T12:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=13656"},"modified":"2012-02-06T14:03:18","modified_gmt":"2012-02-06T19:03:18","slug":"black-chicken-and-other-unexpected-foods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=13656","title":{"rendered":"Black Chicken and Other Unexpected Foods"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/silkie-150x140.jpg\" alt=\"Silkie\" title=\"Silkie\" width=\"150\" height=\"140\" class=\"contentimg\" \/>One of the best things about running this blog is the suggestions for interesting stuff that people send me.  &#8220;Cookie&#8221; dropped me a line the other day to mention the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cheapethniceatz.com\/2010\/09\/13\/eat-the-devil\/\">Chinese batnut<\/a> (<i>Trapa bicornis<\/i>, which is also, I find out, called a devilnut, water caltrop, buffalo nut, and several other names all related to the fact that they&#8217;re black and spiky and evil-looking).  They&#8217;re toxic when raw, but when <a href=\"http:\/\/crystalbyblog.blogspot.com\/2007\/09\/water-caltrop-and-mini-yam.html\">cooked<\/a> they&#8217;re apparently somewhat similar in flavor and texture to a chestnut.<\/p>\n<p>Her note continued, &#8220;They are really impressive served with black skinned chickens, also found [at the Saigon Market].&#8221; And I went, &#8220;&#8230;black-skinned chickens?&#8221;  A quick googling reveals that the chicken breed called the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thekitchn.com\/whats-the-deal-with-black-chic-80171\">silkie<\/a>&#8211;they&#8217;re the ones that sort of resemble the avian equivalent of a sheepdog&#8211;all have black skin and bones and greyish-black meat.  Apparently they have a somewhat gamier flavor than regular chickens; there&#8217;s a bit more information about their preparation and some lovely photos <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/01\/17\/dining\/17blac.html\">here<\/a>.  They&#8217;re also reputed to have medicinal properties, so they&#8217;re widely available at Chinese groceries.<\/p>\n<p>So.  Naturally-black chickens and a vegetable that looks like a medieval torture device.  Match them up with some <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Al-Dente-Squid-Fettuccine-12-Ounce\/dp\/B000FZV432\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&#038;tag=shadmano-20&#038;qid=1328554262&#038;sr=8-1\">squid ink pasta<\/a> and you&#8217;ve got a wonderfully spooky dinner.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks, Cookie!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the best things about running this blog is the suggestions for interesting stuff that people send me. &#8220;Cookie&#8221; dropped me a line the other day to mention the Chinese batnut (Trapa bicornis, which is also, I find out, called a devilnut, water caltrop, buffalo nut, and several other names all related to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paint-it-black"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13656"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13681,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13656\/revisions\/13681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}