Taiwan Road Trip: Free Range Chicken

All chickens are not equal. You have the poor chickens with the miserable life in small cages, their happiness non-existent, the inevitable result a mass slaughtered, mass produced plastic bag containing the remains of a former living being.
In my opinion, no animal deserves to be one of these.
A slightly better alternative is the "organic" chicken you find in the better supermarkets like Trader Joe's, Wegmans or Whole Foods. Be aware though that organic in this sense does not mean that the birds had a better life It just means they are not exposed to hormones, antibiotics and their feed is better. It is not an indication of quality of life.
On the complete other end of the spectrum are the free range birds who roam the fields and grounds of your local farms, Now we are taking chicken. These chickens had a good life, containing of roaming free, eating what they can find, running around to get the food. In other words, chicken living a lifestyle meant for chicken.

We were on our way to the mud baths last night and Ma knew of a restaurant who's roasted chicken was famous all over Taiwan. Like when you go to the mud baths, stop by to eat chicken there first. So we did.
And yes, it was all worth it. All the food was locally naturally organicly grown stuff. Needless to say you can taste the freshness.

But the chicken was indeed all it was advertised. Moist, juicy, slight smokyness from the hardwood they used to fire the oven, just honest goodness. But the meat was how chicken should taste like. Natural sweetness, no dead meat at all.
What a delight.

I am facing a big dilemma now. What do we do now when we get back from the trip? Go back to eating the miserable birds? I am still struggling with that. Part of me wants to stop eating chicken until we can find a supplier who has the free range birds; part of me thinks of the weekly uses we have for chicken.
The meat is either stir fried or used in a slow pot, but every week I make chicken stock from the bones. That's a week's supply of flavoring for stir fried vegetables. I was just so happy about using our own stock for everything...