Greetings Steemit friends! I hope you're week is going well so far. After my last very heavy post about Cultural exchange, it's time to share something light hearted, and what better than a post about absolutely delicious food!
I'm guessing you've all had Roast Duck before right? Are your taste buds tingling with anticipation, and your nose beginning to get a whiff of duck?
So, today, lets talk about Ducks! I'm guessing in western cuisine, duck is a fairly common dish, but I can guarentee you've never tasted duck anywhere near as good as the traditional Peking Roast Duck from Beijing.
Seeing a whole duck, you must be wondering, how do I even eat that thing?!
The Making of the Roast Duck
Peking Roast Duck has had a long history and tradition, and the most common way of preparing it, is roasting via a fire stove. The duck is initially prepared by removing the internal organs. The Chinese way, is to making a small hole instead of cutting open the body, and just pulling the organs out. Then, through this hole, water is pumped into the duck until it is full, then the hole is sealed. The duck is then hung up on the cooking hooks ready for roasting on the fire stove. There are two distinct advantages for this method of roasting the duck.
The Duck maintains it's moisture even after being roasted.
It allows the Duck Skin to swell open, making the skin thin and crispy.
The Duck skin therefore becomes the focal point of the dish because of the terrific taste as well as the crispy texture. Cutting the duck properly is in itself a skill that requires alot of practice and proper instruction.
How to Cut the Roast Duck
Once the duck comes out of the furnace, the first thing to do is to drain the water that was pumped inside the duck out. One roast duck weighing 2000g can produce 90 pieces of duck. As shown in the pictures below, the Chef cuts the skin from the front of chest of the duck then prepares these into thin strips on the serving plate. The rest of the duck is of course not left to waste, and will be cut into larger pieces on another plate. Before you ask, you can't eat these duck pieces alone, there's a particular way you're suppose to eat them and i'll show you below.
Lets Eat
This little collection of trays here are called the 8 treasure boxes, in the middle you'll find the duck wrap. There are two types of duck wrap, a whitish one and a green one. The white one is made with pure flour, whilst the green one is made with spinach powder and flour. The 8 trays surrounding the duck wraps are condiments.
As you can see from the three trays with duck, there are 3 distinct ways to eat these different parts of duck. The middle plate is the duck skin, you take a piece without the wrapping and dip it into the blueberry sauce and then the pop rock candy and eat directly. You should taste the popping sensation of the pop rocks on the candy. Personally this is my favourite style.
The plate on the right, is the tender breast of the duck. You take a piece of this and put it into the wrap, along with it, place a piece of hawthorn tree gel, red onion, and slices of cucumber and finally, some wasbi sauce. The taste is quite new and original, unique to say the least.
Finally, on the left is the nice smelling duck drumsticks. You take the meat and put it into the wrap along with scallion, cucumber and hoisin sauce. This is the style you probably know and is the 'Traditional' way of eating Peking Roast Duck.
The Tasty Side Dishes
These little rolls are crispy a bit like thinly wrapped and very tiny pompadoms. On top, there are different fruits such as Watermelon, Dragon fruit, Kiwi fruit etc. The taste is both sour and sweet, extremely tasty and at this point, not too filling. Although there are some differences in the way the Roast Duck is presented, it all tastes pretty terrific.
They've even made some little birds out of the Chinese Cabbage resting on the mushrooms, they're so cute that I almost don't want to eat them. (But i did)
As for dessert, the glutinous coconut flavoured rice balls were served in the shell of the coconut. On the side there are flower petals and mini clouds of dry ice creating a really artistic looking dish and a perfect ending to a really satisfying meal!
