The Big Dong

Last Thursday when my T. Dot fellow foodie Tudor came to town for a visit, I arranged for a meal at Beijing's revered modern duck institution, Da Dong. Of course, I asked Adlyn to accompany us on this holy grail of Peking duck journeys, enlightening us to the ways of imperial duck dining and of course, showing us the keys to the VIP by way of a visit to the famous back kitchen...

Da Dong has an impressive facade, a grand hall used as a waiting area with a bar and stools looking into the glass-encased kitchen. As most patrons have to wait for a table- yes, even us- the bar is a great idea because they can work on getting their guests slightly tipsy which makes ordering from the elaborate menus that much more interesting later... Another great idea is the free flow of house wine and juice to speed up the process of inebriation. Alriiiight.

The General Manager came out to greet us after a short wait and brought us to meet the Master Chef and the army of sous chefs standing in military rows in the kitchen. There were three large ovens in which ducks are hung exactly 1 meter away from the flame to ensure optimal succulence and crispiness. In the middle of the wall hung a large blackboard displaying in handwritten chalk the number of ducks on order that night. The kitchen was about 300 hundred degrees and my face melted in the heat of the flames.

We talked to the Chef and found out all his secrets, which I will now package up into a little ball of espionage and bring back to Toronto, where duck lovers are seriously missing out.

Here are some sous chefs at work, the Master chef giving us a lesson in Da Donging, and a happy family portrait.






The food was a feat of artistic gastronomy that I'm sure is the first to hit the Peking duck scene. The traditional components of duck are all there; the sesame rolls, the paper-thin pancakes, scallions, cucumbers, sweet sauce and minced garlic, but everything was just that much more haute because of the delicate presentation and showy setting. Duck is the focus, but the offerings do not end there, with page after shiny page of accompanying dishes from braised sea cucumber to mango-wrapped scallops. Some dishes are decidedly sexier with the markings of a well-traveled chef who understands the appeal of molecular gastronomy on the senses and palate. We ordered dishes like mushroom with beer foam, hoisin-glazed cod in a pumpkin, minced duck meat served in a "bird nest", and lotus root, although my less than inspiring descriptions do the menu no justice. Seriously, the mushroom with beer foam had a much more appealing name, which I forget... My favorite was the cod. What miso? Hoisin is the new it-glaze! I could sit there and eat 5 of those everyday for the rest of my life.

The highlight of my dinner though, was naturally the duck. That was when I realized the reason for the army of sous chefs in the kitchen. They are on call to roll each duck by trolley out to the hundreds of tables and perform the art of slicing the finest meat off the bones. Apparently, the marking of a top-tiered duck chef is the ability to cut the duck into 100 slices. No easy feat believe me, despite cheers and encouragement from our table, I think our chef was only able to slice it into 60. Booooo. A+ for effort though!

A tasty trick from the imperial kitchen, which Da Dong practices but I have not seen in other duck kitchens, is to dip a crispy-thin layer of melt-in-your-mouth duck skin into sugar and placing it on your tongue. Holy mother of duck it was divine. I didn't even need to have the meat after that it was so good. I won't entertain you with the other details of the meal, you are either familiar with the components of a Peking duck dinner or you should read Fuchsia Dunlop's comprehensive foray into Da Dong for a better understanding. Without further ado, here are le fotos.














A sweet ending.

i spoke too soon

1. I love how a rainy day just puts everything on hold. Hutong tour, what tour? No more filming either. I guess my new Nikon lens can wait too. The mega camera mall will still be there tomorrow. Rainy days should just as well be called 'Shirk from your responsibility' days.

2. So I'm shirking from my responsibility to study, and will blog instead.

3. My diet in the last two days, in that particular order: pizza, fries, heavenly mozza sticks, mcnuggets, ice cream, pizza, powder soup, pizza, instant coffee, cookies, salted almonds, instant coffee, vitamin pills, calcium pills.

4. My obesity has reached a next level. Stop judging me with your eyes!!

5. Heavy D, you're gonna kill me. Or at least make me eat a tub of Greens+ in Thailand.

6. Does anyone else think the lyrics to Beyonce's Diva are a bit ridiculous?

7. The Momofuku sommelier, Christina Turley, is beyond sick. In fact the entire staff in the Momofukuverse is next levz, from David Chang himself (who has yet to find out he's my future husband) to Peter Serpico, the genius chef at Ko. But 24 year old Turley is a true diva, you know, the female version of a Hust-laaa. I'm immensely jealous of her job, but it was kind of written in the cards for her as well, having grown up playing in the grape vines of Frog's Leap Vineyard in Napa- incidentally owned by her dad. Full Stop. It's really true what Gladwell discusses in Outliers. 50% of one's success is based on circumstance, birth right, serendipity, whatever you call it. The 10,000 hours of practice, well you can't exactly practice sniffing new world wines growing up in the suburbs of Toronto can you? So I'm jealous. But just have to find my own way to be featured on the NYT Moment Blog.

A wednesday afternoon

I woke up this morning with grand dreams of studying, exercising and other chore completion. It is now 5 in the afternoon, my grand dreams now scant, and I haven't done much of anything.

Lamenting the fact that my peers in Canada are done school and I'm still hanging on with one final exam, one that I cannot focus on because the text book is written by a chimpanzee. What do Chimpanzees know about macroeconomics? They can't even trade effectively.

I've done a few food tours this week, including a cool Shanlitun urbaneats one that explores the more upmarket offerings of Yunan and Sichuan cuisine. This weekend I'm heading up to the Wall at Mutianyu to do a gourmet picnic tour with a couple of clients in town. One of whom is an Ivey grad I hear and a managing director in a Canadian bank...small world indeed.

So I was taking a family of four around the hutongs of Houhai yesterday when the mother told me she found out about Hias Gourmet through tripadvisor, which had the Hutong Eats tour ranked on the 3rd of 179 activities to do in Beijing! Jiggawhaat? I couldn't believe it so I googled it myself, and lo and behold it really is.
Now all the reviews have me worried, because I don't think I'm nearly as charming and fun as Adlyn, and am probably giving the hard-earned fruits of her labour a bad name!

I found some incredible pictures of Nanluoguxiang, a gentrified hutong that I walk through during my food tour and wanted to share them with you.





Photos courtesy of ym32 on flickr

The neighbourhood is the perfect place to observe the juxtaposition of new and ancient that is Beijing, with some of the courtyards more than 800 years old. With the eradication of hutongs over the past fifty years, the government has forced multiple families to move in together in what used to be single-family compounds. Today, walking through any alley, you can count the number of electric meters outside to discover how many families live in the cramped space. I've gotten to as many as fifty. This is a must-see when you visit Beijing, and no wonder the culinary/cultural tour is No. 3 on Tripadvisor. No thanks to me. No, seriously.

In other news, I need a new camera. My Nikon has failed me for reasons undisclosable, yes that's a word. I wantnoneed the Canon 50D with wide-angle lens. I would also like a Leica. Lika-leica, get it?? The Holga with which I shot the SH/HZ pics is a dream, but sadly, remains borrowed. I want a vintage twin lens reflex from the antique market also. But alas, my problem remains a rather stubby cashflow, and it doesn't seem to be growing anytime soon. fml.

umami

As promised, here are the photos from my culinary adventures in Chengdu two weeks ago. We arrived on a Thursday night, right on time for dinner at famed Baguobuyi, a traditional Sichuan restaurant. Since we hold the keys to the vip, we watched the chefs prepare our food in the back kitchen. What a kitchen. The largest work stations I've ever seen, with few equipment but high utility from each one. Every dish except soup is cooked in one large wok, and complicated utensils are whittled down to one multi-purpose soup ladle with which they stir, separate, and fry. Each station also has a constant-flowing tap that speeds up the cooking process. What marvel!

Notice the silver tins of seasoning on the side. There are only 6 or so because that's all there is to Sichuan cooking. Salt, Sugar, MSG, cumin, chili powder, pepercorns. This is incredible considering how many varieties of flavours can be achieved just with different combinations of those! A delicious dish called Huiguorou. Twice cooked pork that is thinly sliced fatty meat cooked in chilli paste and sometimes eaten in between guokui, small baked buns.
Dry-cooked green beans. Deliciously fiery beans fried without any water to preserve flavour
A traditional Sichuan face-changing show after dinner. They just nod their head and the mask changes in a flash to new colours!
Our table getting some face-changing love.
The next day, visiting the Sichuan Culinary Institute, one of the foremost cooking schools in China, where we took a tour and had a master class in four staple Sichuan dishes by one of the most sought-after chefs in the country!
Here the students are hard at work rolling dough for dumpling wrappers.

How come all the boys are rolling the dough and the girls are wrapping the dumplings? Inequality if you ask me.

The ingredients set up for our master class.
Teacher cooking a batch of ground pork as a condiment for our Dandan noodle dish later.
Deep frying a batch of eggplant coated in cornstarch to make it soft on the inside.
The final product. This is called Fish-fragrant eggplant. There's no fish in it, but the sauce used is a little sweet and sour from a combination of sugar, vinegar, chilli paste and garlic. I suppose a lot of sweet and sour fish dishes have a similar flavour, hence the name.
One of the most famous products out of Sichuan, the green peppercorn. It is more sharp and pungent than the red version, but has less lingering flavour. The two are used in combination sometime to add a more multi-dimensional ma (numb) to the la (spicy).
No dish is complete without a dash of ground peppercorn powder.
Preparing for our Hot Pot Fish dish.
Instructing us not to try this at home.
Admirable knife skills! Clearly I'm still transfixed!
And still...
Fish is thrown in to simmer in a pot full of chili oil, water, dried chili peppers, and peppercorns
The finished product!
Our dandan noodles!
In each bowl, we place some preserved vegetables called "yacai", some of the fat from the fried pork earlier, a bit of the minced meat itself, and adjust to taste.
Cooking the noodles is an art.
Said "yacai". This brand called "Yibing" is the most famous so watch out for it at the grocery store! It makes a great condiment to any stirfry; with mushrooms, greens, and meat.
Topping up our noodles.
The finished product. How cute in their little bowls!!!
Trying our own hand at the four dishes. Check out how pro I look. Teehee
My precise knifework that unpeeled an entire eggplant. Naw, that was the instructor. Look at those veins popping!
Slicing to make a decorative flower!
Glorious tofu.
Cooking Mapo Tofu. Anyone who knows an inkling about me knows this is my ride-or-die dish. In my memory, my mother made the best version. But I think this weekend may have topped hers! oops.
Final product. With a dash of peppercorn powder.
A visit to the Pixian Preserved Chilli Bean Paste factory. Where factory operations consist of thousands of terra cotta pots just chilling in the sun, chilli bean paste fermenting away inside.
Oh, process #2 is an old man who walks around mashing the concoction up every hour or so. Some high technology here.
ii


A lunch-time visit to the Sichuan Food Museum. Beautiful presentation but slightly lacking in taste.








A traditional tea ceremony. This is the tea master who hosted the LVMH event last weekend. She's a tiny lady who packs a feisty punch, cute and definitely knows how to pour an Oolong tea.
A delicious meal in a "fly" (hole in the wall) restaurant. So much baijiu. So much plum wine. So much delicious.
One of the most memorable trips. Hope you enjoyed the visual feast!