The One With a Peiking Duck

We are still at Day 1. Peter wanted to fulfil his life-long dream of eating Peiking Duck in... Peiking for dinner, and persuaded us to go to this uber-famous place, Li Qin, for it. So, us two girls, one who is not a big fan of ducks, and another one who is a vegetarian, followed our fearless leader to the place, with the help of the hotel doorman, who told the cab driver where the place was. The cab driver had to call up the place for more info, which made me a little worried whether this will be the downfall of being three people who has the Mandarin language comprehension limited to counting 1-10, and saying 'ni hau' and 'xie xie' ONLY. The mystery deepens when the cab dropped us off a lonely-looking street and Peter led us into a dark alley where some hutongs can be seen. How can a famous restaurant be located somewhere this isolated??? Naturally, I voiced my concerns "Oi Peter, you taking us to sell to pimps issit??" But I was soon silenced when we arrived at the restaurant, which is actually in a real hutong (a courtyard home). We had to wait for almost 30 minutes, eventhough we had reservations (we arrived early due to over-enthusiasm), and there was a LINE forming to go into this humble restaurant. We entertained outselves watching the ducks being fire-roasted, and with the waiting patrons' antics...

Ducks being roasted... I think I zoomed too much in this pic...

The restaurant-in-a-hutong. Festive, isn't it?

Peter, demostrating to us how to eat the duck, when it finally came, ONE HOUR after we sat down and entertained ourselves with the two vegetable dishes we ordered. (it was worth it!!) It involves putting cucumber and spring onion strips on the popiah-like skin, after smearing the skin with the dark sauce, and then the duck meat. The duck was carved right infront of our eyes...luckily, although it looked huge, the amount of meat was not too overwhelming, as there were only two of us to finish it! Peter finished most of the duck, while I had some, which was a good thing, for I ended up eating Peiking duck FOUR times during my short sojourn in Beijing - not by my choosing!