Roast Duck-The Calling Card of Beijing Food
2 min readIn Beijing，hosts usually opt for roast duck as their first choice when entertaining friends from afar，and thereLare almost no exceptions to this rule.Beijing roast duck has simply become the calling card of Beijing food.
Eating roast duck provides the revelry of tastes，as well as a visual pleasure.Slicing the duck is worthy of being described as a superb，artistic and precisely calculated performance.The bright，clean，jade-like slices，along with the gold，translucent skin，fall onto the plate one after another as the thin knife-edge moves swiftly.
A duck is usually sliced in 80 to 100 pieces and the cuts weigh about 0.6 kg.The bones are returned to the kitchen and cooked over a big fire；almost instantly，a bowl ofdelicious，milky duck soup will be taken to the dinner table.
There are many ways to eat roast duck.But the mostcommon food and vegetables to accompany roast duck are a combination of thin pancakes，sweet sauce made of fermented flour，shredded scallion and long，narrow pieces of cucumber.First，sweet sauce is spread on a thin pancake，then roast duck，shredded scallion andcucumber are added，and finally”sandwiched”togethergently.In this small”package”is the whole spectrum of Chinese food staples:meat，vegetables，garnishes and condiments.The nutrition of this small package is surprisingly well-balanced，not to mention delicious.
The crispy skin can also be eaten with white sugar.The combined flavor of the meat and the cool sweetness is indescribable.
Generally，roast duck is made in two different ways：one is gualu roast duck（the duck is hung and roasted in an open stove）and the other is menlu roast duck（the duck is roasted in an enclosed stove）.The Quanjude gualu roast duck is renowned both at home and abroad and the Bianyifang menlu roast duck has a long history.Gualu roast duck is made over a roaring fire on an open stove，and fruit trees are used as firewood.The skin is crispy and smoky with the fragrance of fruit trees.Menlu roast duck is roasted over the heat of burned sorghum and the oven door is closed tightly.Each method has its own merit，but，either way，the duck are both famous for their crispy skin，tender meat and are equally perfect and delicious.
