Duck Soup

It's official. I've become my mother. I actually photographed one of my meals.

Actually, I photographed it so I could share the experience with you. Naturally, one of the traditional foods that you need to eat in Beijing is Peking Duck. (Fortunately, most duck restaurants will prepare half of a roasted duck for you since they go through so many.) I have been to the famous Quanjude on Wangfujing, as well as Beijing Da Dong and I have to say that I much preferred the latter, both in terms of food quality and service. Reknown doesn't necessarily mean quality.

The waiter brought a cart into the dining area and expertly disected the roasted bird into small pieces, taking special care to remove the oyster and the liver, and separating the skin into a separate pile. The skin is dipped in sugar and eaten as is. (Sweet, fatty, and crispy, all in one shot. I know some people who would love this.)

As for the rest of the items you see scattered about my place setting, these all relate to the main event. You take a wrapper dough (they call it a pancake, I would approximate it more to a wonton wrapper or maybe a thin tortilla), add your desired garnishes (duck sauce, garlic, onions, and several pickled vegetables are provided), place a few pieces of duck on top, and then fold the "pancake", first in half over the fillings, then in thirds to make an open ended wrap. Mind you, this is done entirely with chopsticks. Being stubborn and reasonably talented with chopsticks, I insisted on not cheating.


Well, this was a big winner -- absolutely delicious. And with the exception of the skin, not nearly as greasy as I expected. In fact, the meat was tender and moist. (And they also give you ginger for cleansing your palate, miso soup, and fruit for dessert.)