Quanjude Peking Duck Restaurant – Beijing

China is a very interesting country to visit and get to know. It is not only the most populated country in the world, but there are more Chinese people learning English today than the whole English speaking population altogether. Amazing, heim?

I will start a series of posts on a trip to China.. and my first one will be about food…

What else?

I love the Peking Duck and I got introduced to it many years ago in London by my father… he used to love taking me to Bayswater to eat it… the restaurant is still there and from time to time, we go back.

So once in China, I craved for tying the “real” thing…

I was recommended to go and try the oldest Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing. The Quanjude Peking Duck.

It opened its doors in 1864 and since then it only serves one dish… in several different ways… but we went for the traditional one.

As the restaurant is famous, people speak reasonably well English, and therefore there is not much struggle with the orders… I am only saying this because it is not always so obvious and in another post I will tell you some of my adventures when ordering in China,…

What makes the Peking Duck so special?

Well, first one needs to like Duck… overcome that part, everything is good about it…. The Duck is roasted at very high temperatures in an open oven and then the meat is separated from the bone in small to mid size slices… the size is important as it needs to fit inside a pancake…

Then, it is served with pancakes, spring onions and a delicious sauce…

It is very simple and must be eaten using the hands…. Once the duck is served, the exercise is to fill each pancake with the sauce and slices of duck and spring onions…

Ah… I could not have enough… I ate soooo much….

Quanjude Restaurant is today present in several parts of Beijing and all over China, but the very first one was in a small alley at Qianmen square. It is still there, and although big, not to say huge, as it fits more than 1000 people, it is hard to find…

So, if I was to recommend, I would say not to visit any other one but the original one…

You will thank me for the tip…

XX Valentina