Beijing Duck

Before coming to China all of the tour guide books said, "you must try the Beijing Duck".  Therefore, it has been the one dish that I've been super excited to try...but for some reason I haven't up until this point.  However, now sounds like as a good a time as ever to remedy that :-)

On Saturday night Chris, Enoch, and I met up with a couple of local Beijingers (Grace and Terry) who were going to take us to a restaurant for Beijing Duck and a dish that Terry labeled 'the best kung pao chicken ever'.  Our adventure started with a bus ride.  Yep...I decided to try out the bus system again even after my last experience where I felt for sure I was going to be plastered against the wall and fossilized like an ancient leaf due to the stampeding Chinese filtering in and out of the cramped space.  Thankfully this time went much better...and I realized that I have a distinct advantage over every one else in that I'm tall and can see over the masses.  My 'skills' were utilized and I became the 'spotter', keeping track of our group and relaying information back and forth to Chris (the other resident tall guy) about the location of our group members.

Five bus stops later and my job soon transitioned to offensive lineman.  Getting off the bus is perhaps the most difficult part.  There are hoards of people trying to go all different directions and always seemingly hundreds trying to get onto the bus.  All of those people trying to get out run into the wall of people getting on and there is no system for allowing people to exit first...so it is mass chaos as two tidal waves of people meet.  Therefore, I'm supposed to put my head down and move forward and create a hole for my running backs...I mean friends....to exit as well.

After making it off the bus we were excited to find out Terry had actually made reservations (didn't know that was possible here) so we were able to go right in.  We had Terry take control and he ordered us up a feast including the duck, the kung pao chicken dish, my favorite spicy long beans, jellyfish (which are surprisingly chewy and taste JUST like you would expect jellyfish to taste...if you can imagine that), spicy cabbage, and I'm sure other things that I am forgetting.  We feasted on the dishes and then finally...it was time for the duck.  First they bring out a little tiny plate with a tiny amount of duck.  This was supposed to be the special duck breast meat that you dip in a little tiny bit of sugar.  WOW!  These little pieces were AMAZING.  Then the rest of the duck came and Terry gave us all a demo on how to properly enjoy the duck :-)  If you are interested...here is Terry's explanation.

(Oops...apparently videos don't load well here...I'll try again later).

After enjoying the delicious duck they bring out these...

Yep...that's our ducks head (and beak).  Apparently the brains of the duck are considered a delicacy here...and you wouldn't want to let them go to waste...right.  Our brains just sat there...in the duck heads as Grace and Terry weren't big 'brain' fans either :-)

All in all...a great night!  I hope that everyone gets to experience Beijing Duck at least once in their life!