Roast duck: crispy skin paired with tender meat
Roast duck must be my favorite dish ever. I have happy associations of the cooked birds with their bright red festive color, hanging in window displays. I also have memories of bustling dim sum carts offering plates of the succulent meat to diners.
I know that some people love Peking duck, with its thin slices of meat and slivers of green onions wrapped in soft, steamed buns (or in thin crepe-like wrappers). I still prefer the down-home, simple version of roast duck. It’s a dish made by the right addition of spices and proper baking time (although I’ve tried it at home, and I think the restaurant ovens must possess some sort of unique magic to make them turn out just right).
That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the complementary sauce, though. Roast duck is nothing without the sauce. It’s about the tasty combination of the meat dipped into plum sauce, or a home-made concoction made from the roasting juices.
Above all, though, roast duck symbolizes family time to me. We’ve used it as a treat or in celebrations (a stand-in for the traditional turkey at Thanksgiving). Anybody else have a food that means family to them?
[…] of traditional barbecue meats, I’m a big fan of the triumvirate of Chinese BBQ: roast duck, roast pork, and char siu. They’re all very flavorful. Char siu, often marinaded with a […]