One of the pleasures of visiting a high-end peking duck restaurant in Beijing is watching the skill of the chefs.
In London we instead have Aromatic Crispy Duck – much the same flavour, by deep fried… To serve, a slightly overdone looking bird is plonked on a plate and aggressively ripped to shreds by a bored looking lady with a pair of forks.
Here the duck is sliced and diced tableside, just moments after coming out of the oven. The duck is quickly and precisely rendered down to 70 or 80 moist little slivers, and topped with a shell of crispy golden skin.
Having conducted extensive research by eating lots of duck in the last few months I’ve come to the following conclusions.
The quality of duck and skills in DaDong are second to none, but as I mentioned previously the overall experience isn’t that great for a night out as there are too many loud business meetings taking place. The meagre side dishes are beautifully presented, but prohibitively expensive and so subtlety flavoured as to be bordering on dull compared to the duck.
Quanjude duck restaurant chain is more famous, but now so full of tour groups (both foreign and domestic) to the extent that Beijingers rarely consider the place, despite its excellent reputation. As with DaDong, the number of happy Western tourists and their subsequent reviews has skewed the online results so that it often comes out on top in restaurant polls.
For a more relaxed, but just as delicious, experience head to the more traditional Xi He Ya Yuan, Bianyifang, or my personal favourite Xiang Man Lou. Here the duck is just as expertly served, but in a more family oriented environment. Side dishes are equally exquisite, and plentiful, yet the total bill is around the same as the price of a few condiments in DaDong.
Thanks to the Wall Street Journal for the video, and Shanghaiist for the heads up.
Man, that duck looks delicious. One Day, we’ll visit you and we have to go and eat there,or there, or there.
Do come and visit – I’d love to introduce you to some other real Chinese food including Sichuan hotpot, Xinjiang skewers, steamed buns, soupy dumplings, dry spicy hotpot. Mostly hotpots. There may even be time left to see some of China between meals.