'Strictly Come Dancing' star Karen Hauer has revealed her one of her favourite foods is chicken feet.
Karen Hauer
The ballroom and Latin professional was born and raised in Venezuela where she developed a taste for the unusual menu item, which is known for its gelatinous texture and considered a delicacy in many parts of the world.
And Karen also revealed that the chicken she ate was as fresh as can be as her grandparents would take responsibility for picking the fowl the family ate and killing them.
She said: “I liked eating chicken feet! They’re amazing! From what I remember – and this is going to send horrific – my grandparents would boil the chicken and they would dunk it in, obviously they would slightly end its life so we can eat it.
"I would help pluck the feathers out and then they would boil it, cut it up and sauté or fry it up. Most of the time they would make it into a soup, in a massive pot with yams and potatoes, carrots, corn on the cob, it was amazing, the smell and the taste. I would never be able to taste that flavour again because it was so specific, the way my grandmother used to make it.
“I wasn’t picking out my own chickens but there would be plenty of people picking chickens out, and I’d be playing with a little baby chicken.”
Karen, 39, eventually moved to New York with her parents and siblings, but the camaraderie and support that she saw the women in Venezuela share has never left her.
Speaking on Oti Mabuse's 'The Rhythm of Life' podcast, she said: "I saw all the women always cooking and cleaning and working together as a team, I think that’s one of things that I think I always like and has stayed with me throughout the years, teamwork and having your circle around, having the right people around and I think that’s what I really liked.
“I love cleaning, I love a mop. When I think about it, I always saw the women were sticking together and always building together and building each other up and helping each other out, regardless of any differences that they had.”