The phrase "as delicate a" is correct and usable in written English.
It is typically used to emphasize the delicacy of a noun that follows, often in a comparative context.
Example: "She handled the situation with as delicate a touch as a skilled surgeon."
Alternatives: "as fragile a" or "as fine a".
President Obama landed in New York on Monday burdened with as delicate a diplomatic task as can be imagined.
But it may prove to be as delicate a subject as convincing parents that they need to move out of their house or give up driving.
Perhaps no search site is in as delicate a position as Yahoo, which features Travelocity exclusively as the booking engine in its travel section, in exchange for $64 million in total advertising fees during 2004 and 2005.
The sexuality of children, and its exploitation by adults, is about as delicate a subject as a movie can address, but a film like Gregg Araki's "Mysterious Skin" proves that it can be done with seriousness and integrity, neither of which is in evidence here.
"This is as delicate a moment in U.S.-China relations as ever before and never have so many factors been involved," said Chris Williams, the senior foreign policy adviser to the Senate majority leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi, who is a strong supporter of Taiwan.
"Heroin" is certainly as delicate a poem as "The Rising," but the syntax has become more difficult to parse and the images, especially the closing image ("the bugs / come apart with mayonnaise & honey"), are a far but confident cry from the images in "The Rising" and its closing image ("I'm in bed / with my sister, / comforting her").
But most growers say they cannot foresee a mechanical picker handling something as delicate as a bosc pear or an empire apple.
The chefs were trying to strike a balance as delicate as a good gumbo: how to call attention to the plight of the Louisiana coast without scaring off patrons and tourists.
Harry was a strapping Scots-Irish trucker who was as easygoing as a man could be and as hardy as an oak tree; his wife, Irene, was as delicate as a porcelain teacup and a consummate worrier.
Her celebrated footwork – fast, fierce and controlled – can distil right down to the drilling of a lone woodpecker; it can be as threatening as a military drumbeat, as delicate as a patter of rain.
What came through was an encounter between two mysterious sprites and a bus conductor that was as delicate as a bit of floating ember and almost as unnerving as the notion of mortality.
