beijing kao ya / peking duck!

every time i'm in beijing, my parents take me to the beijing da dong roast duck restaurant - one of the best peking duck places here.  i don't ever remember eating peking duck anywhere else.

i couldn't wait that morning to get out of bed so we could come here for lunch.  to my pleasant surprise, the restaurant has evolved in the past 3 years to include a wide range of food.  the menu was literally a thick hard cover book, with artistic photos for each item taking up an entire page.

it was overwhelming to think that i would have to make room for the duck AND all this great, creative food.  but i did it! 

salad - i don't think i even touched this

one of my favorite dishes here. i think it's called something like "duck treasure" - tender pieces of duck in a savory hoisin sauce with pine nuts and beans, cupped by a delicate crispy "nest" on lettuce!

some kind of sprout (looks like pea sprouts but apparently it's from some kind of tree?)

this was one of those amazing "new" dishes. on the left side is smoked salmon and some kind of crumbs rolled into a layer of avocados. on the left side are tiny fried dough-like objects. it was beautifully presented. when it came to the table the avocado roll had a round glass over it. inside, it was cloudy - when the server lifted the glass the smoke rose into the air and it smelled like our house when we bbq with wood chips. i wish i got a picture of it before they did that!

another one of those new inventions. it came in a huge black bowl, and when i peered over the edge, two plump birds constructed with bak choy lay next to an "egg". it actually wasn't an egg, but steamed fish shaped like an egg. inside the egg, the "yolk" was made of crab roe. this was so creative and absolutely delicious!

another staple. cabbage with chestnuts.

stir fried bean sprouts and green bell pepper.

*PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL THIS FOOD WAS BEFORE THE DUCK!!

FINALLY. here comes our whole duck. the servers stand next to your table and carve it for you.

all the duck condiments. on the top left corner, you have sliced cucumbers and turnips. to the right of that, hoisin sauce and scallions; bottom right - garlic and sugar, and the last one is 2 types of pickles.

these are the thin pancakes you use to make your little duck "burrito"

mmm duck. 1 whole duck makes about 2 plates like this, plus the head (which i stay away from)

you can dip the crispy skin in sugar and eat it that way too. really indulgent.

duck soup - just a basic broth. SOOO good and flavorful, and not at all oily/greasy. i had two bowls.

finally we get to "dessert" - this is an almond jelly/soupy like concoction.

and fruit! i looove the little clementine looking things - they have a really weird english name which i'll research later but basically they are teeny tiny oranges and you eat the skin too.

i don't think we ate dinner that night. at least, we just had some light snacks. this was worth it - i am going to try to go back again before i leave!!

dinner - (how is it possible to eat again after bellagio?)

after walking around at this crazy new luxury mall (where i felt like i was either at bloomingdales or rodeo drive - which i never go to - because everything was gucci, prada, chanel, juicy couture, etc etc) we actually went to dinner.

since i was still in a food coma from lunch, i just asked for some simple, casual food...it really didn't matter to me where we went because i was so grateful to just be here. i asked for some "jia chang cai", which means basically home cooking - like the casual chinese dishes you eat everyday at home. mainly, i wanted my favorite potato dish - "tu dou si" - julienned potatoes stir fried with green pepper. see description from chungking post here.

edamame - according to my dad, this was soaked in cooking wine?

veggies! however, this was kind of salty and covered in msg. tasty, but my palate is adjusting to the strength in flavors.

a chicken soup - the broth was wonderfully thick and heavy and there were tiny shreds of coconut mixed in.

yet another delicious fatty dish i always eat in beijing: "mei cai kou rou," meaning preserved vegetable with meat. but the pork is soooo fatty (and delicious and great for my arteries!). i poked it with my chopstick and could see gooey fat coming out. the preserved vegetable stuff at the bottom is what i really love.

the best way to eat the pork dish is to stick a piece in these buns. mm! the golden colored ones you see are baked, while the white ones are steamed. you can dip the baked ones in this creamy condensed milk sauce - sounds weird but really satisfying.

finally, our potato dish arrived. sadly, my parents were extremely unhappy with the way the restaurant butchered this dish. i, however, had less discerning taste since i was just grateful to be eating practically ANYTHING here. but they cooked this in soy sauce (no!) and in oil that had chinese peppers in it (which numbs your mouth). i ate a few bites and thought it was edible, but my parents were vehemently against this dish, telling the server to tell the chef to taste it himself. hilarious!  

also, upon further inspection from our takeout bag, i noticed that this restaurant is translated as "golden tripod attic."  huh??

i'm off to eat "beijing kao ya" (aka peking duck) in a few hours.  but first, i must eat the leftovers from these previous meals for breakfast!

the eating begins - very first lunch

after i woke up from a 2 hour nap, i immediately started eating.  just for fun i weighed myself so i can see just how much weight i will gain from this trip.

the first place i want to eat whenever i come back to beijing is always bellagio, a taiwanese restaurant.  we ordered a feast - the waitress questioned our judgment.  

my absolute must have. stewed pork with egg, over rice. fatty pork, actually.

this is called "pi dan tofu" - it's a soft, cold piece of tofu mixed with chinese pork shreds (dried - never knew what they really are), and preserved duck egg. one of my favorite appetizers.

on the menu, this is called dragon something. it's a type of vegetable i've never seen anywhere else. again, another staple of bellagio that i get every single time.

this is a tofu dish in a clay pot, cooked with pork. really rich, seasoned and flavorful.

i don't even know what this is! i just asked my mom for some kind of fish and this thing appeared. YUMMY. i think it was some sort of white fish; it's sitting over one of those heating trays.

this one is a new one for me. spare ribs dusted with cumin - i think maybe a little untraditional but i had to try it. it had a nice kick to it - i was the only one eating this! i think there may be leftovers in the fridge right now...hmmm given my jet lag it might not be such a bad snack as i write this at 7:30am!

also - did i mention i got a nikon d80 for my birthday from destructor?? (he is the best!) thanks to the new snazzy camera, i am able to shoot all this wonderful stuff on my trip.

i also ghetto-rigged it with these great close-up lenses recommended by the guy at bel-air camera when he saw my face after telling me that the macro lens was $500 (on sale!).  who needs that when i can shoot close ups like this with those things?

this was the least interesting. a seafood noodle soup dish twice the size of my head, the flavors were confusing to me. the noodles were like chow mein noodles but the broth reminded me of some thai/other southeast asian dishes.

last but not least, another staple: "san bei ji" or "three cup chicken" - chopped chicken cooked with three types of sauces.

beijing

today i am in beijing. it's been nearly 3 years since i was last here, and this trip is definitely going to be an interesting one. it's sunday, and i just got here this morning. i lost my saturday, and it feels like i've had one day that lasted more than 48 hours, packed with 6 meals. my brain is foggy but i did manage to eat a ton of food already!

anyway, this is the new international terminal. never seen it before but it has the same feel as the old one. when you go through customs there is a button that asks you to rate the service, marked with smiley faces (or frowning ones).

my sister and i come home to a nice, simple warm breakfast (it's 7am). our parents got us chinese donuts from kfc. yea, they have everything at kfc here. all types of chinese food.

after breakfast, i took a nap. my parents moved into a new apartment so i've never been here before, but all my old furniture from high school is here...truly disorienting.

this is the view from my window. unfamiliar, yet still comforting...

peruvian chicken noodle soup for a sick boy

poor destructor was suffering from a cold, so i decided to bite the bullet and try this recipe i had been eyeing in my saveur magazine.

i had been really lazy about trying this mainly because the recipe called for simmering the chicken broth for over 3 hours. who has that kind of time? but since we were staying in all saturday, it was the perfect opportunity to make this.

the soup was amaaaaaaazing. i omitted cilantro (my arch-nemesis), and added tons of lime juice (i really like tangy flavors). the chopped green stuff you see is mint i decided to add (again, die cilantro, die die die!), which worked out really well.

you can find the recipe here.