Never did I ever expect Peking Duck to be this good, until you visit the source of where it originates: Beijing. The ducks are roasted using a traditional wooden stove and it is prepared for you by the master chef as soon as it is cooked to perfection. This is probably one of the most famous Peking Duck restaurants in Beijing, where they’ve won countless awards and recommended by government officials and the Premier. This restaurant experience was phenomenal for me as I’ve always wanted to try a top notch Chinese Degustation meal, almost Kaiseki like, and very much what I had in mind if I ever had the chance of opening a restaurant. Visiting Da Dong will erase every Western stigma ever created in related to Chinese food. It is cultured, refined, with many levels of flavour, texture and beautiful poetic meanings behind the name and presentation of each dish. Nothing is greasy and deep fried, and you will never find anything drenched in flourescent orange colored sweet-and-sour sauce.

This is how the duck was served by the master chef, each piece perfectly sliced and layered. It is cooked in a such a way that there is no extra grease (they called it “Superlean” actually, i think it’s a lie) but the skin of the duck is glistening like it is glazed with honey, purely from the natural fat and oil of the duck. The condiments served below are (clockwise from top): Cucumber and pink radish, sweet sauce and scallion, crystal sugar and garlic puree, olive paste and pickled ginger.

The waiter gave us an introduction to how this is to be eaten traditionally. You eat the duck skin first, by dipping it in sugar. It tastes amazing – cripsy with a moist juicy centre, it is fat but there is no excess oil. Then you place the rest of the meat on your pancake. You either use a mixture of sweet sauce and scallions (you don’t use the cucumber or radish when you have it with the dark sauce), or you wrap it with a thin layer of garlic puree (“it is important to spread it very thin, evenly across the pancake so it isn’t too overpowering or spicy” she teaches us), and garnish with cucumber and radish. In between each flavour, the chinese olive and the pickled ginger serves as a palatte cleanser. And we all learnt how to assemble our pancakes using chopsticks only – without touching anything with our hands until eating.

Another amazing highlight – Braised Black Tip Shark’s Fin with Saffron Sauce

The signature dish. At a whooping 500+ yuan a bowl (a year’s salary for some people), we shared this delicacy with a few people. The saffron is aromatic and creamy with an amazing golden color, and somewhat French influenced, in my opinion. The sweetness is so delicately balanced against the smooth glassiness of the shark’s fin with a glutinous bite. It is a signature dish that has been award gold medals in the National Cooking Competitions and an amazing spin on the classic Shark Fin’s soup.

This dish is also one of my favorites, not only for the presentation of the two love birds made from bok choy.

It looks like a hard boiled egg, but in fact, the egg white was steamed in the shape of an egg – and inside, is a delectible concoction of braised golden crab roe and crab meat with flavours that explode in your mouth. It would take some skill to create something as special as this!

Drunken Chicken topped with Bamboo Fungus

There is also an amazing choice of vegetarian dishes, each one presented so beautifully.


Top: Lotus root (where each little hole is stuffed with glutinous rice), Iced asparagus (which were the sweetest, freshest without that asparagus smell that some people find offputting)
Bottom: Bolete with Burgundy, Aubergine, and young bamboo shoots

And who can say no to Fois Gras?

One with mushroom sauce, the one on the right was infused with green apple and Haw. (Remember haw flakes as a kid?)

Stuffed tofu on spoons – spicy mince, and pickled vegetables on the bottom (Xue Cai).
 

On the left, Sea Cucumber fried rice – It was delicious. And on the right, Diced fois gras fried rice.

It got to the point where I was so full, I could only try two bites of each flavour of fried rice. I didn’t even try the Matsutake fried rice.

And finally, the complimentry dessert included chilled Perssimon puree in I think an almond milk…

If you ever visit Beijing, I highly recommend this place! Oh, and the Olympics were great too… I burnt all my calories walking in the Olympic park – there was hardly any transport available in and out of the games. You think you’re really close to the Bird’s Nest because you can see it…. but that was another 30 mins away!

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