12/05/2016
【Real Beijing Duck】
Have you ever try Beijing Duck before? Generally, when you order Beijing Duck from a Chinese Takeaway, or from the restaurant in the UK, they normally provide you Pulled duck meat to roll with cucumber and spring onion slices.
Actually, in Beijing, China, these photos below shows how the real Beijing Duck looks like. The original recipe of Beijing Duck was found in 1814, Beijing; most restaurants in China still follow the recipe and rules nowadays, which include 20+ steps of the preparation, the same weight of each duck, the time of roasting, even the number of duck meat. Even most restaurants are cooking with electrics nowadays, restaurants which serving good Beijing Duck, still using original fire oven, with apple wood / pear wood only, to giving ducks a unique taste and colour.
The modern way of cooking, also made couple of changes to the Beijing Duck, not the duck itself, but how you going to eat it. When you order a Beijing Duck in a restaurant in China, generally, it will take about 30-40 mins to cook, as all ducks must be fresh made; then, a chief will bring the whole duck in front of your table, and slice it for you, the chief will slice a dish of duck skin only, and you will have it with white sugar or sweet palm sauce, with the brilliant way of cooking, most duck oil on the skin is already gone, or dipped into the meat, so the skin will not taste oily at all, the skin almost melted in your mouth as soon as you put it in; the second and the third dish will be duck meat with skin, these are the main dish for Beijing Duck, you will need to dip 3-4 pieces into the duck sauce, then put on a piece of hand-made pancake, roll it with slices of cucumber, spring onion, white carrot, melon, and even more options, in anyway you like, the taste will be unforgettable! The last dish will be pure duck meat, as these meat come from the very inside of the duck, it will be slightly dryer than others, so you will dip them into a seafood seasoning sauce, and put them into a mini bun, this way will make that dry taste disappear immediately. At the end, on the chief's table, there will be only a whole duck bone, it will be wrong if you think they are going to throw it away, you will have three options of the duck bone, 1. Deep fry it with cumin seeds and salt 2. Duck bone soup 3. Take it home. Most customers will choose the 2nd option, as the soup taste very fresh and light, for the end of meal, it will be the best choice!
This is why Chinese people says, the real Beijing Duck is not only a dish, but also a whole meal. The duck skin with sugar as the starter; duck meat with skin in the roll, and pure meat with mini bun as main; and finishing with a lovely bowl of duck soup, not just foreigners, even most people come from Beijing, still can't stop eating it.
After all the introduction, you might believe to having Beijing Duck with all the lush service, must be very expensive. Actually, the whole Beijing Duck meal will only cost you about 9 - 20 GBP, some high class restaurants will serve it for about 20-30 GBP, and the whole duck meal can be served for 4 - 10 people; if you are travelling alone or just two of you, most restaurants can also accepting half duck order.
Hungry now? Please ask us for all the details of travelling to China, the delicious Beijing Duck is waiting for you there! :)
Please make common and share if you like this, as a new page, we are hoping more new friends can find and join us, we can talk about anything here, making new friend, even probably find your travel mate together to go to China!
Thanks to all friends who already followed our page, tell me what you want to know about China, we will share what we know with you!
Regards,
Mahoney Song
Marketing / Office Manager, Chingland Ltd.
