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?

Source.

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.

1. The Duck maintains it's moisture even after being roasted.
2. 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!


亲爱的Steemit朋友们, 这周末过的开心嘛？今天我们来聊聊生活中不能不做的一件事，那就是“吃“，哈哈，今天我们就来聊聊鸭子吧，西餐的烤鸭大家可能已经非常熟悉，所以为大家介绍一下著名的北京烤鸭和搭配它的特色菜肴。
烤鸭的制作
北京烤鸭流传至今有非常悠久的历史，主要的做法是挂炉烤法。详细的做法是不给鸭子开膛，而是在鸭子身上开个小洞，把内脏拿出来，然后往鸭肚子里灌进开水，再把小洞系上，挂在火上烤。这种方法有2个好处，既不让鸭子变得太干，又可以让鸭皮很薄很脆。鸭皮自然成了烤鸭最好吃的部分。而如何把鸭皮从鸭子身上分离下来，也是非常有讲究的。
片鸭的方法
1只2000克的烤鸭，可片出约90片肉。第一刀先把鸭子前胸的皮片下来，再慢慢按步骤将鸭皮片成条形，放在盘子中。剩下的鸭腿和鸭骨架也不会浪费，会放在另一个盘子里。说到吃法，下面就要提到，烤鸭并不是单口吃的哦。
开始吃吧
图上绿色的鸭饼是用打散的菠菜汁和面粉所做的饼。边上一圈是8种配料，一共有3种吃法。鸭皮不用卷饼，直接沾蓝莓酱和跳跳糖，品尝嘴里跳动的鸭皮（这是我的最爱哦）。鸭胸肉可以将山楂糕、紫洋葱和黄瓜条卷饼沾黄色芥末酱吃，有一种咖喱的味道非常新颖。鸭腿肉和葱丝、黄瓜卷饼，沾甜面酱来品尝，这是最传统的吃法。
美味的配菜
这个菜下面是松软的面饼，上面搭配了各种水果切成的迷你块，吃起来酸甜可口。几只青菜作成的小鸟停留在蘑菇上面，样子可爱极了，都不忍心吃啦。椰汁汤圆作为甜品，把可爱的汤圆装在椰汁壳里面，边上放满了玫瑰花瓣，阵阵白色烟雾围绕着玫瑰花瓣，太有意境了！

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If you are interested in my other blogs related to food please check out these other blogs below Eating Oysters is all about the mood and feel..
The night bazaars of Xi'an - A walk through Hui Street.
Food Friday! Japanese foods help to refresh the taste buds in the mouth .
Summer is the time for BBQ'——a look at Xi'an's famous BBQ.
Swimming-with-the-crayfish .
A Chinese twist on Japanese Cuisine.
The Moon Festival's secret menu.
Girls have an appetite for pretty food or tasty food.