Up the pecking order

Indian diners eschew chicken manchurian and hakka fish for the textures and flavours of duck, Peking style.

There is an exacting protocol reserved for the dishing up of Peking roast duck. Most that are served up at your neighbourhood Chung Fa, however, are a bit of a swindle. It's often a hybrid, quick-n-dirty Cantonese style sold under the guise of its Beijing counterpart.

And that to Angel Mu, Beijing native and now manager at Grand Hyatt Mumbai's China House, is anathema. "I spend most of my time re-educating guests," she says with a wan smile.

Once reserved for special occasions, the Peking duck is now regularly and loftily consumed by self-proclaimed gastronomes. It used to be the preserve of one or two high-end restaurants that would demand you place your order 24 hours in advance, but the proliferation of high-end Chinese restaurants has meant a proliferation of Peking duck "" some authentic, others less so.

"Indian-Chinese" restaurants like Ano Tai at Vasant Continental recently including Peking duck on their menus certainly points to greater acceptance.

Peking duck is definitely the gem on the China House menu. It isn't cheap either, most restaurants will charge between Rs 1,500-2,500 for a whole bird. China House serves up at least 80 whole ducks a week, a number that grows every day.

So they decided it was prudent to buy out a duck farm in Pune. Not least because there are strict guidelines that govern the breeding of ducks for Peking duck.

"No duck older than 40 days and less than three kilograms in weight can be considered," according to Mu. Even stricter parameters govern the elaborate production line which includes pumping air into the bird to separate the skin from the meat, dousing the bird with boiling water, hanging it for many hours, and so on.

"Hopefully, all after the duck's dead," I whisper. Mu nods in the affirmative and goes on, if only a tad unconvincingly, to repudiate all other allegations of torture, like slow-boiling live birds or making them walk on coal or force-feeding them.

That out of the way, China House has a meticulously designed cooking station, complete with a clay brick oven, devoted to that revered of all golden birds. Disclaimer: taking a peek into the freezer where whole-skinned, orange-hued and very bloated ducks hang is wholly avoidable.

Although you could argue that this new trend of displaying roasted ducks in open kitchens (19 Oriental Avenue at the Shangri-La in Delhi has this as well) will gladden those among us who find ourselves instinctively drooling over hanging tandoori chicken at roadside restaurants.

The preparation itself is down to a science. "The wood for the oven can only ever be mango wood, and the bird is cooked at 240 degrees for precisely 50 minutes," points out Geng Chunyu, the master chef who has spent the last eight years perfecting his skills at producing the real McCoy.

Most common among Peking duck muffs is that the duck is deep-fried instead of hung and roasted. There are several other aberrations like the crispy Peking chicken (okay, so it's not even duck) at Ling's Pavilion in Mumbai, which also serves a crispy aromatic duck.

As does Royal China, which sells it at Rs 2,250 for a full portion. This variation, apprently developed by the Chinese community in the UK, just doesn't deliver on the fanfare, the meat being carved up in the kitchen and served on a platter.

Others serve up the Cantonese style where just the crisp skin is served with lettuce leaves instead of flour pancakes and the meat is cooked and served as another dish. The Cantonese style also demands that you serve the duck with either plum sauce or hoisin sauce. There are common denominators however "" cold cucumber sticks, cut scallions and white flour pancakes.

"Peking duck," Mu continues to educate, "can never be served with anything but soya-bean sauce". Also, three kinds of cuts are served "" crisp shiny skin, skin cut along with breast meat, and just meat (usually from the leg).

The skin is eaten plain, with refined sugar spinkled on top. The pancakes made with the other two cuts can be spread with either soya-bean sauce or garlic paste, or both. True blue fans, however, will give up the pancakes after a while and just eat the meat, relishing the crunch and melt textures of it.

"Crispy aromatic duck is the happiest compromise for Indian palates," says Nelson Wang of China Garden. "Indians don't like skin and bones and what is Peking duck without skin and bones?"

Besides, points out Wang, Indians are unused to the textures and flavours of duck meat and so he tries to get their palates accustomed by introducing duck meat in preparations like canton duck grilled in wine sauce.

Perhaps what is Peking duck's greatest draw is the production effort involved. To order it is to agree to partake of a solemn ceremony that is guarded earnestly by the master chef. The glistening beauties are usually wheeled from the kitchen with an entourage including the chef, the maitre d' and a waiter, and they are always carved and served at tableside.

Slicing is almost down to a science, 98 pieces from each duck and all consistently sized. Be warned though, make the mistake of interrupting the proceedings and you will risk the ingestion of some very bad Qi.

(With inputs from Anoothi Vishal in Delhi)