Duck restaurant

You are in Beijing and you want to taste the authentic Peking Duck and you ask the concierge at your hotel, and he looks at you not understanding. What have you done wrong? The name of the city is Beijing. Peking was the western name for it and the Chinese no longer use it. The nearest you get to it today is the fact that your luggage is sent to an airport with a code of PEK.

Ask for Beijing Duck. The hotel, however good it is will send you to one of two places by giving you the name of the restaurant written in Chinese on one of their visiting cards so you can take a taxi there. The main Beijing Duck restaurant is enormous. Each floor will hold over 500 people and there are at least 7 floors. It will come as a shock to many western tourists with large groups of Chinese on tables. They will shout and laugh. They will take photographs of the food and send it to their friends and family and then talk to them at the top of their voices. This is definitely not the place for a quiet romantic meal.

You will need to test the duck as you test fine wine. The chef will bring the duck to the table and cut off some of the skin and fat and put it onto a small plate for one or more of your party to pick up with their chopsticks and taste. Once it has been approved then the chef will use his cleaver to carve the duck into very thin slices. The carcass will be taken away.

A waiter or waitress will then demonstrate to you the method of putting the duck and its accompaniments into the pancake. Why is that important? Chinese form the majority of people who use this restaurant and they find it highly offensive for anyone to handle food once it is cooked. This is not just for Beijing duck but is the practice all through China. So pay attention as to how the waitress uses the chop-sticks and spoon provided to make the pancake rolls. It is half the fun of eating there.

You will feel you have had enough but then the soup appears. Yes they have taken the carcass of the duck removed earlier and made soup out of it. That is definitely not the western way, but in China, soup is the last course served then you all argue over who pays the bill and finally can go home.