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Beijing Roast Duck (北京烤鴨)

There is an actual saying that no visit to Beijing is complete if you miss seeing the Great Wall or dining on Roast Duck.  The Beijing (or formerly Peking) Roast duck has been around since the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) and initially was one of the main dishes served for the imperial courts.

But, enough about history!  Let’s talk about the Roast Duck dish itself.  The roast duck’s pieces are usually wrapped in some sort of pancakes with green onions (or leek), cucumbers, and plum or Hoisin sauce.

The following are pictures from my recent visit to Fung Mei, in Duluth, Georgia.  Now, their website does mention that they specialize in Shangdong and Sichuan Cuisine (and nothing about Beijing food), so I didn’t know what to expect.

Here’s what we got:

Beijing Roast Duck Dish

Notice the black sauce at the side? That is Hoisin sauce (which directly translate to seafood sauce 海鮮醬).  On the dish there is also leek and cucumbers along with the roast duck which has been chopped in to pieces).  So what you do is you take the pancake they also give you (at Fung Mei, they gave us a mantou-like wrap) and wrap it with all the ingredients and sauce as if you’re eating a Chinese fajita.  You are going to LOVE the crisp the roasted duck gives you!

Beijing Roast Duck Wrapped Up

It’s also common to have the bone of the duck and remainder of the duck meat to be made in to a soup with cabbage.  So here’s the soup we enjoyed along with our Roast Duck:

Beijing Roast Duck Soup

To be honest, this was not the best Beijing Roast Duck dish I’ve ever had.  It was pretty delicious… but not the best.  As I mentioned before, it didn’t look like they claimed it was their specialty either so I guess there was no surprise there.  I would say that if you’d like to try some Beijing Roast duck and you’re in the area, you should stop by!

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Pork Knuckle Dinner at Chef Teng

Chef Teng is a well known restaurant chain in Taiwan.  Like any other chains though it started with one restaurant.    I learned that the background of Chef Teng is that he studied some french cuisine in Japan a while back and incorporated some French cuisine in to Taiwanese food, which I found interesting.  The most popular dishes are Beef Noodles Soup and Stewed Pork Knuckles.  Chef Teng’s has been around for years, and now there are several different locations, including at the Kaohsiung Airport!

This is where I had my last meal in Taiwan before returning to the states.   I had a BLAST even though most of the time it was about visiting family.  The food has been spectacular!

Pork Chunks Meal with Pumpkin soup at Chef Teng

Of course before going back to the states, I wanted a yummy milk tea from Taiwan!  You can actually find them in Atlanta at many Asian restaurants too, but for some reason it is just not as good as right there in Taiwan. (In case you’re wondering Bubble Tea originates from Taiwan!  If you don’t know what that is, you’re gonna need to try it soon, it’s delicious!)

Milk Tea at Chef Teng

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