Out for a duck

Why not see in Chinese new year with a few rounds of Peking duck? Dominic Fitzsimmons tracks down the best places to enjoy this ancient dish in Beijing
Preparing Peking Duck in Beijing
Hooked ... preparing Peking Duck. Photograph: Dan Chung

Out for a duck


The Chinese traditionally celebrate the lunar new year by tucking into a batch of homemade dumplings around the kitchen table, but if you prefer to hit the town on big occasions, you could usher in the start of the Spring Festival (which lasts from new year's day to the fifth day of the new year) with Peking duck.

Known as just plain old kaoya, or "roast duck", to everyday Beijing folk, the dish has a history nearly as long and as illustrious as the Chinese capital itself. During the Yuan Dynasty, duck was said to be a favourite of the royal court and in 1330 it was featured in imperial kitchen inspector Hu Sihui's cookbook: The Complete Recipes for Dishes and Beverages.

Roast duck remained the preserve of the upper classes throughout the subsequent Ming and Qing dynasties probably due to the fact that only rich households would have had the oven needed to cook it, and the waterfowl were relatively rare in a city on the edge of the Gobi Desert. Even though an oven is still a rarity in most Beijing households, shops that sell ready-roasted ducks have helped it become a staple city dish. More recently Sichuan-inspired stalls selling spicy slices of duck neck, vertebrae and all, have sprung up around the city and are a popular takeaway snack comparable with the great British kebab.

Peking duck is now as much a part of every visiting tourist and dignitary's itinerary as a photo opportunity at the Great Wall, and even Dubya is alleged to have had it on his to-do list when he last visited the city in 2005.

"President Bush was supposed to visit my restaurant when he was in Beijing the year before last," said Mr Zhang, of Liqun Roast Duck Restaurant, a city favourite tucked away in a maze of alleys near Tiananmen Square. "We had everything prepared. But unfortunately his limousine was too big to fit down the narrow hutong streets and they decided it was a risk to let him walk."

Zhang said that another time former vice-president Al Gore made it to his restaurant unscathed, but will not be drawn on whether the green campaigner lectured him on the amount of wood it takes to roast a duck.

The ducks used to be glazed and then hung in a special oven that was fired by millet stalks. Nowadays nearly every restaurant uses wood from fruit trees because they produce little smoke and subtly flavour the meat.

The bird is usually carved at the table, the flesh and fat served to diners, while the bones are returned to the kitchen to be turned into soup or bagged up so you can take them home to boil. Hearts, livers and, in some cases, tongues can be served as side dishes.

Eating the duck is simple: just take a pancake and fill it with a few slices of leek, a piece of fatty skin and a chunk of meat dipped in the dark plum sauce. Roll and eat.

Recently many restaurants have taken to splitting open the duck's head and serving it to the most respected member of the dining party. "It's a fad, but we'll serve it if people ask us to. As a rule old Beijingers don't eat the head – that's more of a southern thing," says Zhang, also slamming modern twists such as adding cucumber or sugar to the pancakes.

1. Quanjude

Beijing's best-known duck diner has been open since 1864, the time of the Qing dynasty. Thanks to friends in high places, like former premier Zhou Enlai, this restaurant has hosted everyone from Nixon to Castro and has done much to raise the dish's profile. It has branches across town, but is now the favoured stop for coachloads of foreign tourists.

· 13 Shuaifuyuan Hutong, Dongcheng District; +86 10 6525 3310; quanjude.com.cn

2. Wang Ya (King Duck)

Thankfully the food inside Wang Ya is every bit as good as the boastful name above the door. Try the duck liver, it's as good as any paté; the duck meat is also served in pitta-style bread instead of pancakes.

· 1 Minzuyuan Lu, Chaoyang district; +86 10 6204 9932/2648

3. Du Wang Kau Ja Dian

Famed for serving especially good duck web and duck heart. Here, the meat is again served with pitta-like bread instead of pancakes.

· 201 Huizhong Li, Yayuncun, Chaoyang district; +86 10 6491 9665/7

4. Liqun Roast Duck Restaurant

Set up in the early 1990s after Deng Xiaoping urged entrepreneurship, this restaurant is run by a purist and oozes old Beijing. Small and a bit off the beaten track, but that's all part of the charm.

· 11 Beixiangfeng, Zhengyi Lu (to the northeast of Qianmen), Dongcheng District; +86 10 6705 5578

5. Made in China

Made in China is in the Grand Hyatt hotel and serves the poshest – and most expensive - poultry in town, specialising in contemporary north-eastern Chinese cuisine.

· First Floor, Grand Hyatt Hotel, 1A Dong Chang'an Jie, Dongcheng district; +86 10 6510 9608