Beijing Roasted Duck

Beijing Roasted Duck 北京烤鸭

Beijing Roasted Duck has the reputation of being the most delicious food in Beijing. It is usually a fixed item of dinner on any Beijing tour itinerary. Eating Beijing Roasted Duck is also one of the two things you are absolutely supposed to do while in Beijing — the other one is climbing the Great Wall.

The hometown of roasted duck is actually Nanjing City of Jiangsu Province in East China. In the 19th year (1421) during the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the emperor moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, and hence roasted duck was introduced to Beijing and became an imperial dish.

The way to eat it is to coat the thin pancake with sauce, slap on a few pieces of meat and roll up the pancake. Chopsticks are optional: it is much easier just to grab the thing with your bare hands. Normally there are many dishes served with the duck, including a dish of fine-cut shallot bars, a dish of cucumber bars and finally a dish of paste-like soy of fermented wheat flour. The dinner usually ends with a rich cream-colored duck soup made from the duck.

The perfect Beijing Roasted Duck is the combination of crispy skin, thin well-savoured fat layer and soft, succulent meat. Wrapped together in a thin pancake, with spring onions and hoisin sauce, the taste is absolutely heavenly. You have to try it yourself and you are sure to fall in love with this delicacy and with Beijing!