Mainland internet celebrity food vendor “Goose Leg Auntie” admitted that after it was revealed that the “goose legs” she sold were actually duck legs, the related controversy continued to escalate. Recently, a restaurant in Wuhan, Hubei, at the entrance of South Central University of Finance and Law, which previously advertised as selling “Dry Pot Goose Wings,” changed its online store name and meal names to “Dry Pot Duck Wings.” The restaurant admitted that since its opening, it has always used duck wings and never used goose wings.
According to a report by “Upstream News” on June 12th, several students from South Central University of Finance and Law posted on social media on the 11th that a snack shop called “Dry Pot Goose Wings” at the school gate had changed its online name to “Dry Pot Duck Wings.”
The report mentioned that the restaurant’s previous online sign was “Silly Goose Dry Pot Goose Wings.” Some students expressed that they had always thought they were eating goose wings before. Some customers also mentioned that due to the lower prices, they had long suspected that the actual ingredient might be duck meat.
On the morning of June 12th, the restaurant’s group buying platform had already changed its store name and meal names to “Dry Pot Duck Wings,” but some promotional pictures still had the word “goose wings” on them until being corrected in the afternoon that day.
The person in charge of the restaurant admitted that the name change was influenced by the “Goose Leg Auntie” incident. Since its opening in 2022, the restaurant has been using duck wings for its wing dishes. They claimed that the use of “Silly Goose Dry Pot Goose Wings” as the store name and meal name gradually came about because it was “easy to remember,” without explicitly stating that the actual ingredient was duck wings.
Furthermore, they mentioned that the use of duck wings was primarily due to cost considerations, as the price of goose wings is about twice that of duck wings. The restaurant’s single-person set meal is priced at 32 yuan, including four duck wings and one wing tip. The restaurant owner stated that if customers inquire in-store, the staff will inform them of the actual ingredients.
“Upstream News” also discovered that another restaurant in the same area, “Fragrant Pavilion Dry Pot Goose Wings,” still labeled its set meal as “Dry Pot Goose Wings.” The staff of that restaurant admitted that they had been using duck wings for nearly four years and claimed that “Dry Pot Goose Wings” was simply a long-used dish name.
Employees of the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Donghu High-Tech Zone in Wuhan mentioned that if a menu is labeled as “goose wings” but actually provides duck wings, it could be deemed as a violation. Currently, the relevant market supervision authorities are investigating, but have not yet announced the results.
This renaming event of “Dry Pot Goose Wings” occurred after the revelation of the “Goose Leg Auntie” admitting that the “goose legs” she sold were actually duck legs. The real name of “Goose Leg Auntie” is Chen Xiufeng, who became famous for selling roasted legs near Peking University and Tsinghua University. Recently, netizens questioned whether the “goose legs” she sold were actually duck legs.
Screenshots circulating online show that Chen Xiufeng admitted in a group buying chat that the “raw material is duck legs” and stated that she would indicate the raw materials in the future but denied any fraud. The Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Haidian District in Beijing stated on June 11th that they had started an investigation but had not yet announced a conclusion.
Some netizens expressed that the focus of the controversy is not about whether duck meat can be consumed but rather if businesses honestly label ingredients to ensure consumers’ right to information. Some netizens also questioned that from “goose legs” to “goose wings,” it is not uncommon for similar discrepancies between product names and actual ingredients.