If you ask me to decide on a favourite poultry, it will have to be duck. To be honest, I rarely consume duck back in Malaysia, probably only on special days where us kids have been good enough to deserve a bite haha. Having said that, I had a very memorable duck experience in Beijing 13 years ago and until today, I am hunting down for a place that serves something similar.
Which brings us to today's post, a little experimentation with peking duck at Quanjude. From memory, this was a guarded recipe from the imperial palace's kitchen and it was a dish that is famous in Beijing.
Traditionally, the duck's skin has to be shattering crispy. This is the most important criteria. When a piece of the duck's skin is wrapped with a few slices of spring onions and cucumber, topped with a teaspoon of hoisin sauce, perfection is achieved.
Now back to this place, the entire restaurant is decorated with miniature pieces of duck ornaments, just to remind you that they specialize in peking duck;)
We ordered a whole duck to ourselves and had to order an extra plate of steamed wrapper skins. The cost of the duck is at least $20 more than other places but for the experience, we gave it a try.
Sliced spring onions and cucumber pieces.
I was a little shocked when the plate of duck skin appeared on our table. From my understanding, we ordered a whole duck and so, we should be getting a lot more skin? Was very confused because we were advised to eat it by itself or alternatively, dip it into sugar.
A few minutes later, we were served with a plate of duck meat. The duck meat was succulent but I still couldn't understand why we had a tiny plate of duck skin because the heart of peking duck cuisine is the skin. Overall, it was a confusing meal and it made me doubt my knowledge in this area:/
On the other hand, their fried rice was very fragrant indeed. Simplicity at it's best!
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