One Year Away

Joseph

On our last night in Beijing before heading to Mongolia we decided to treat ourselves to a Peking Duck dinner.  Beijing cuisine is one of the four main styles of Chinese cooking and roast duck is the signature dish.  It was considered so highly that it used to be served only to the emperor and his family.  There are now many restaurants in the city that serve this dish but there is one place with two locations near Tienanmen Square that is well regarded and has an English menu. 

When we reached the restaurant we could see through the window that it was quite crowded.  Before we even stepped foot inside a woman of about 30 years old wearing a black suit and name tag approached us.  “Restaurant full now.  You go other location. I show you.”  We had a map with us that showed the second location so knew about where it was.  She proceeded to lead us through a series of small alleys with tiny restaurants and people eating and drinking outdoors.  I figured she was taking us along a short cut by avoiding the main street.  Then inside the maze of small alleys she took a right turn where she clearly had to go left if we were going to the restaurant she claimed to represent.  “I think we’re going the wrong way.” I said to her, but she had popped into a restaurant that was completely empty except for one table.  “Here it is!”, she said triumphantly.  Penny and I looked at each other and knew we’d been had. 

“This is not the restaurant you said you were taking us to.” She looked down at the floor like a kid caught doing something bad.  “I’m disappointed.  We’re leaving.” I said. 

We went to the second location on the map and knew we were in the right place.  The restaurant was enormous and the staff to customer ratio seemed about 1:1.

We ordered the whole duck, a side of vegetables and a giant Chinese beer.  The duck was individually numbered since they began selling roast duck in 1864.  It
wheeled out on a cart and a carver begins to work on it.  First, a small plate of crispy bite sized pieces of skin are served.  Then two plates of bite sized morsels of duck meat with fat and skin are produced by the carver.  The server showed us how to assemble the main course; take the rice wrapper, add some pieces of the duck with fat and skin attached, add a few scallions and sauce, wrap and eat.  The wraps were absolutely delicious.  The flavours of the duck, fat, skin, scallions and sauce marry perfectly.  The texture of the soft wrap and meat with the crispy skin made every bite satisfying.  Last they served us a small bowl of bland duck broth which we skipped to save space for
more wraps.  Sadly, despite our best attempts we weren’t able to finish the whole duck. 

I think I’m addicted now.  I literally can’t wait till we’re back in Beijing to eat some more roast duck.  The next day we were at a shop buying some water and snacks for the bus ride to border.  I bought a bag of Lay’s chips; Beijing Roast Duck flavour.  Yup, I’m officially an addict.