Beijing, China (GMT +8)

(Originally written by Fuji on November 11, 2010)

Spent my last full day in the Beijing office yesterday, Wednesday, November 10. To show my appreciation to Jeff for all the time he spent helping me get a better understanding of our business in China, we went out to dinner after work. I let Jeff pick the spot and he chose to introduce me to Beijing's signature dish: Peking Duck. If you didn't know, Peking is the ancient name for Beijing.

China's TV HQ in Beijing... eye-catching architecture

Side note: Jeff shared a couple of other neat insights to his city. Beijing is formed by joining 2 words, Bei and jing, which in English means: Northern Capital. Beijing wasn't always the capital of China. Before the People's Republic of China (PRC) was formed by the Communists, the capital was further south in the city of Nanjing. As you might have guessed, Nanjing is formed by joining 2 words, Nan and jing, which means Southern Capital. Kinda cool.

I've never enjoyed duck - had it once eons ago and don't remember liking it - but, I did not want to be insulting to my host and, what the heck, it's only fowl so, wholeheartedly agreed to give it a go. (I was decidedly un-Japanese on this day - left my camera at the hotel :-(  ) Jeff drove us to Da Dong's, supposedly the finest proprietor of Peking Duck in Beijing. We parked underneath the building and walked up to the restaurant. Da Dong's is one of many, more upscale restaurants in this particular area of Beijing. As you approach the restaurant, one can't help but notice the very large print on the floor to ceiling glass windows framing the restaurant that proclaim that Chef Dong's signature dish is: Braised Sea Cucumber... I wasn't in the mood for sea cucumber this evening so, was quite pleased with our menu selection of the evening, Peking Duck. :-)

We were early, probably the 2nd customers of the evening to walk in, as the clock approached 5pm. They were ready and expecting us - Jeff had called in reservations. The restaurant has a very classy feel and really works hard to impress it's clientele. We were escorted to a table for 2 (more on that in a second), sat down, and I let Jeff place the evening's order for both of us. I could tell that Peking Duck was a particular favorite of Jeff's, rarely indulged, by his enthusiasm for the opportunity to introduce me, a visitor, to the delicacy. I felt honored and privileged. Having said that I had no idea what to expect and was intrigued by the air of expectation, both exuded by Jeff and I, and the coming ceremony.

Our table for 2 was set off to the side. Before you sit down they come and cover the backs of your chairs with a white cover... not sure why, it wasn't a particularly messy meal. The table was initially quite austere. Only a small, square carved mahogany box to my left holding napkins with a pair of salt/pepper shakers and some very nice individually packaged toothpicks (I took a bunch of those :-)  ) standing in a small square porcelain shot glass. The service providers bring you chopsticks, chopstick props and a spoon, a small thatched bamboo boat with a rolled heated towel to wash your hands with and a large cloth napkin.
 
The menu's arrive, 3 of them. The largest menu contains all of their menu items accompanied by lots of photo's of the dishes. A slimmer white laminated menu appeared to be more of a light fare menu and the third menu was for the not insignificant wine cellar located on the premises - and other beverages too. Took Jeff about 10 minutes to consider our options, ask my opinion - I choose the veggie plate - and place our Peking Duck order. Nothing came free including the water. Once our choices were made, our attending servers brought each of us round plates to eat off of, a round bamboo steaming container full of very thin, round crepes made of rice to use as wraps for the duck and, square plates holding 8 different seasoning flavors of various textures and thinly sliced veggies which we could use to garnish our duck with. The eight were:
- red radish
- cucumber
- onion/leeks
- a garlic paste
- crystal sugar
- diced ginger
- diced pickled cucumber, like tsukemon
- a dipping sauce of dark, sweetened soy miso paste

Side note: for some reason I was intrigued by one of the beverage selections on the menu... seemed quite out of place to me and I began to crave it: a chocolate milk shake! So, I ordered one for my drink of the night - Jeff doesn't drink and I'm happy to accomodate in like. When it was served, there really wasn't anything special about it, mostly chocolate milk with just some ice cream but, I enjoyed it nevertheless and Jeff seemed amused with my delight in ordering and drinking it. :-) (I did have a slight alergic reaction to it this past morning).

Wasn't long before our duck arrived. By the time it did the restaurant seemed to have grown quite busy. Most of the patrons starting to fill the restaurant were non-Chinese. Four (4) folks brought out the duck - and it's a whole, defeathered duck with neck and head still attached - a service Captain, a young lady to place and set-up the holding stand, another server holding the large bird under glass - he places the duck on the holding stand and takes away the glass and, finally, the carving master decked out to look like a chef with a very long, sharp knife. All along Jeff is giving me a blow by blow account of the ritual that is unfolding.

Under the watchful eyes of the Captain, the carver very delicately addresses the bird. He started by slicing the skin from the belly of the roasted duck starting from the aft end of the bird up to the base of the ducks neck... he sets that aside for the moment. Then he starts making very small precise slices of meat and skin from the thighs/drumsticks and lays each piece out neatly on a plate that holds a bed of romaine lettuce. He patiently cut and built a oval mound of duck meat slicing from the breast next until that plate is filled to his liking. Remember that strip of skin he cut fromt he belly? He slices that skin up and then puts it on top of the meat which is then presented to us for eating. This process is repeated twice and you end up with 2 plates of meat to eat from... he also removes the 2 small wings and places those with some stray meat on another plate for you to pick from and then everyone goes away, takes the carcass with them and the meal can begin. :-) Actually, quite fascinating. Jeff tells me they use the carcass to make associated soup dishes - we had one as an appetizer and it was quite good.

Despite the huge size of the duck, you only end up with a couple of modest sized plates of duck meat. It's all dark meat by the way, no chicken breast-like meat anywhere.

Oh, while this was going on our veggie side dish was delivered: steamed broccoli with 8 pale yellow round, center-stuffed, jiggling sides of tofu balanced on 8 chinese soup spoons. When I was choosing the veggie, I had no idea that what I was looking at was flavored tofu - usually a favorite of mine. In this case, I ate 2 of the 8 offerings, and really didn't enjoy them. The tofu tasted quite fishy while the brown stuffing in the middle was of some mystery seafood family and even more fishy tasting. The broccoli was great.

So, amidst a lot of back and forth conversation about the best ways to enjoy the duck, we dug in. The skin is considered a much favored delicacy to be eaten by itself. Reminded me a bit of pork rinds (which I love), just a tad on the greasy side while quite crispy at the same time. The taste bordered on bland but was quite tasty dipped in the miso paste sauce.

I actually enjoyed the duck quite a bit, eating slowly and deliberately to explore the taste and texture. I ended up eating a good portion just dipping the meat into some of the garnishes. The way I enjoyed the duck the most was by piling the meat onto the rice crepes adding the veggie garnishes and flavoring, rolling the crepes and eating the duck like small burritos. Was excellent. There were enough leftovers for Jeff to brown bag (this restaurant actually uses clear plastic containers for left overs) some back to his home.

For dessert, they served us a small bowl of what looked to me, initially anyway, to be squid black ink soup... warmed. It had the consistency of watered down pudding and was topped with minced peanuts. It was actually quite pleasant and I believe it was a puree of sesame seeds and black beans lightly sugared.

That dish was followed by our final plate; a good handful of seeded red grapes served on a bamboo grate over a depressed dish that had some dry ice in it giving the effect on the table of a mad scientists concoction.

I can now claim to have had authentic Peking Duck in it's namesake city!

The whole affair was only 360rmb (about $55-60US) - pretty darn reasonable.

Finally, to make a long blog even longer... My journey back to the hotel:
Jeff was good enough to drop me off at the Beijing Hard Rock Cafe since it was on his way home. Didn't spend much time there... enough to buy a couple of t-shirts and some pins. Went out to catch a taxi. The guy/valet helping with that for Hard Rock, took my hotel card, appeared to read it, flagged down a taxi for me and off I went... I thought back to the hotel. Well, I spatially knew where we were on a map but, I had no idea what direction we were traveling. The whole trip should have cost me maybe 20rmb.  By the time I concluded that we were going in the wrong direction, due west and away from my hotel, the meter read 40rmb. The Hard Rock valet told him to drive me somewhere in East Jesus (actually West Beijing)! I had the driver pull over, handed him my reading glasses and the hotel card. He too was visibility irritated by the bogus directions and was doing his best in Chinese to make me aware of the flub - I was nodding alot and saying 'yes' and 'please' alot while pointing the other way. He got it.

Best of all he turned off the meter and 30mins later we pulled into the hotel. I showed him a 50rmb spot and handed it over. He was fine with it. I think I may have met the first taxi driver I like in Beijing!

Need to get this to Meg.  Next post will be from Singapore.  Later!