Essence of WHAT now?!

I was researching an article the other day and I discovered something that I just can't seem to get my head around. Apparently, there exists in this world a substance known as “essence of chicken.” I had no idea this existed. If I'm not mistaken, it's made by cooking down a whole chickens into liquid, filtering out the fats, and then bottling it. If you drink it, you get that Popeye-eatin'-spinach effect.

It seems to be an Asian thing, which explains why I've never heard of it, because I've never been to Asia. The English invented it as a royal health tonic. I have to admit, it does sound nutritious. Four times as nutritious as a bowl of chicken soup, they say. And we all know how nutritious chicken soup is.

Not as nutritious as cock soup. --  Anuj Kumar Pradhan

I'm still having trouble getting my mind around the "cooking down whole chickens" part. Whole freaking chickens, man. Into a liquid, man. How long must that take?

Forever, with the feathers. -- John Went

Then again, I do come across some crazy stuff in the course of research. For instance, the flatfish, or flounder, swims upright, like a normal fish, when it's young. As it matures, one of its eyes moves over to the other side of its head, and it begins swimming on its side.

Now that you mention it, they do look a little bit lopsided. --  OpenCage.info

But you probably already knew that.