Why peking duck

A skilled chef is said to be able to carve each duck into more than pieces. Normally, the skin is savoured first, perhaps with a sprinkle of sugar, followed by the meat with all the trimmings. A young chef in a white toque parks a trolley by the side of the table.

On it is a duck; plump and glossy, its skin is an enticing caramel and entirely smooth. With a long knife, the chef shears off slices of lacquered skin and then succulent meat, laying them neatly on a serving platter. Pancakes are taken from a stack in a bamboo steamer, anointed with dark tianmian sauce, laid with slices of duck and shards of leek and cucumber and rolled up, ready to be eaten.

The crisp skin, dipped in white sugar, melts instantly in the mouth. The combination is irresistible: the fragrance of the meat and skin, the savoury hit of the sauce, the refreshing contrast of the vegetables. In Beijing, aside from the ubiquitous pork and chicken, lamb is the most distinctive local meat; duck is somewhat overlooked. But for Peking duck, locals make an exception. The dish is said to have originated during the 13th century in Hangzhou, not far from Shanghai.

Roast duck was one of the cooked foods sold door-to-door by street vendors, and it became a speciality of nearby Nanjing, the first capital of the Ming dynasty.

Allegedly, it was only after , when the Yongle emperor moved his capital to Beijing, that roast duck found its way to the city. Over time, chefs in Beijing bred a local variety that became known for its snowy-white feathers, thin skin and tender flesh and was regarded as far superior to the ducks of Nanjing. According to veteran Beijing chef Ai Guangfu, in the earliest days of Chinese roast duck, the birds would be roasted on a large metal fork over an open fire.

But in the southern capital, Nanjing, they began to roast them in a menlu an enclosed oven , so that more could be cooked at once. Among the various restaurants jostling for position was one that opened in under the revived Bianyifang name — a brand that lives on today, with many branches, although the birds are now roasted in gas ovens. This new method soon eclipsed the menlu and, even now, is synonymous with the finest Peking duck.

As one of our signature dishes, it is well-received by all the foodies in our restaurant. Even with only a few ingredients, this dish continues to hold a prominent place on menus in Chinese and Asian fusion cuisine in general.

Its lasting dominance can be greatly attributed to a long and decorated history in Chinese culture. To detail the history of roasted duck in Beijing, we will rewind the clock all the way back to s, in the early Southern and Northern dynasties, and follow time into the s, during the Yuan dynasty where the dish set sail into its esteem.

Today, roasted duck is still prepared elaborately. As mentioned earlier, roasted duck is named after Beijing or Peking, which is an older spelling variation of Beijing. However, the roasted duck dish first appeared in Nanjing, Jiangsu during the Ming dynasty. When the Ming dynasty moved to Beijing, they brought roasted duck along with them.

When the Qing dynasty surpassed the Ming dynasty, the popularity of roasted duck flourished, establishing a fixed place on the menus of royals, nobles, poets, and scholars. Part of the appeal of roasted duck is its extravagant prep routine. The earliest incarnation of the dish dates back to the early 14 th century. Hu Sihui, the official dietitian for the emperor and rest of the royal court during the Yuan Dynasty, included the recipe in his highly influential book Yinshan Zhengyao Important Principles of Food and Drink , which to this day remains a pillar of both Chinese medicine and cuisine.

At this time recipes like these were considered highly guarded secrets, being perfected and reserved for only the highest members of royalty. The fall of the Yuan Dynasty in brought about many changes in China and paved way for the rise of the Ming Dynasty. The dishes association with nobility continued, becoming a regular feature on imperial court menus. It was a prestigious occupation as only the best chefs could enter the palace kitchens.

A top cook was even able to reach the rank of a minister! It was in these kitchens where dishes of exceptional quality such as the Peking Duck was first created and crafted to perfection by palace chefs.

With the eventual fall of the Ching dynasty in , court chefs who left the Forbidden City set up restaurants around Beijing and brought the Peking Duck and other delicious dishes to the masses. The meticulous preparation of the Peking Duck includes a rather interesting step, where air is pumped into the duck so as to separate the skin from the fat.