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25 August, 2014

Dinner at 长安壹号 Made In China

Everybody goes for Peking Duck when they are in Beijing. From Quan Ju De 全聚德 to Da Dong 大董, this simple dish of a roasted duck wrapped in a ultra thin skin served with a sweet bean paste and julienned cucumber and leeks has become the definitive dish representing Beijing (and so say China). Quan Ju De, being the granddaddy of this whole Duck dynasty, is also the training ground for many of the chefs that started their own joints, Da Fong being one of them. Then you have newcomers like Made in China 长安一号 located at the Grand Hyatt.

Broad beans I’m plum sauce. Quite tasteless.

Potato mash in a vinegar sauce. Don’t like it.

Quintessential cucumber and leeks strips that accompanied the duck.

First cuts, the crispy skin just below the neck line. It was supposed to be eaten with sugar. But I like it as it is. Their version was quite dry and not oily. Obviously they have modified the formula for modern taste buds.

The skin was thin but broke easily. And it was quite chewy when cold.

The meat was served unlike in Singapore where it would made into a second dish. This duck breast was quite dry, again not a hint of oil.

The creme de la creme of the duck that you used in the wrap. Cut in the traditional Beijing way (skin with meat) it was quite different from the Singapore way of eating Peking duck – which is skin only.

Sautéed vegetables. It turned out that the orange stuff was not carrot but pumpkin. Excellent. Light, tasty and good choices of vegetables.

Foie gras tossed in fried glass noodles. And excellent dish again. If the chef was not seasoned, the glass noodles would either be too oily (oil added to keep the noodles separate) or lumped together. This version was light and yet the noodles were quite separate and flavorful. Looked like a lot of wok tossing was involved.

Lamb pancake. This turned out to be the most oily dish of the evening. What an irony!

Dumplings with pork and chives filling. Simple ending to a fairly good meal.