Beijing Roasted Duck

Duck being carved

The last two days of my China trip were spent in Beijing with a coworkers family. This was certainly the highlight of my trip. The Lu's were the most wonderful people. If the weren't taking me somewhere they were feeding me. Their hospitality reminded me of my own Italian family. My first night with them we went to a local restaurant and had my favorite meal of my trip-which they told me was a typical New Years meal. The meal started with a chef coming to the table with a Beijing Roasted Duck, or as were call it Peking Duck, which is now considered one of China's national foods. The chef carved it right at the table and it was served with paper thin pancakes, hoisin sauce, scallions, and slivers of cucumber. The meat is sweet but the best part is the seasoned crispy skin which dominates the flavors of the dish. I've prepared this at home myself but this was the first time I've seen it served in the traditional manner. This was definitely a 5 star dish.

The presentation

Needless to say there was much more food. We also had a chicken dish, a beef dish, and a dish with bamboo shoots and mushrooms. While all of them reminded me of some of the dishes were would get a Chinese restaurant here, they were by far superior to anything I've ever eaten in the US.

The duck was served on a paper thin pancake with scallions, cucumbers, hoisin sauce and then wrapped up

The chicken, beef dish, and bamboo shoots with mushrooms

One thing I must explain about the family I stayed with, they do not speak English. We communicated with hand signals, phrase books and a handheld translator that Miss Lu used to translate from Chinese to English (it did not always translate very well). Despite the language barrier we were able to communicate and have a wonderful time together.