Peking Duck has to be one of the best meals you can order. It consists of 3 courses, all prepared using 1 duck. The first course, the appetizer, consists of the warm thing “pitas” brought to you along with the duck’s skin, green onions, and hoisin sauce. You put everything together into a roll of delicious flavours and textures. This is definitely my favourite part of the meal, it absolutely tastes heavenly. The duck’s skin is supposed to be very crispy and carved with just a small amount of meat underneath it. The best place I’ve ever had this at was in Toronto (not Beijing, surprisingly) where the duck was cooked just right and carved at our table. (Supposedly, you often get gipped of skin when you order this, I’m pretty sure it has happened to me a few times already).

Dish 2 is a soup cooked with the duck’s bones. You get a broth full of mushrooms, tofu, vegetables. Because the broth is cooked with the duck’s bones, it has a much bolder flavour than chicken broth. It’s usually served as a very chunky soup, to the point where I would normally go at it with chopsticks first.

The third dish varies from restaurant to restaurant. It’s a stir fry using the duck’s meat. Some places will make it saucy and mean for you to eat it with rice, but they’re wrong. The dish is best when it’s a dry stir fry with plenty of vegetables and served with lettuce leaves used to wrap the stir fry in. The fresh, cold leaves cut into the meat’s stronger taste and makes it a lighter, more refreshing meal.

If you’ve got a big appetite, and are maybe a little crazy, one whole duck between two people is just about right. I’m often disappointed by getting too little of the skin-appetizer, but between two people, it’s really close to just right amount to be satisfying, though it borders a little bit on the indulgent side. But still, it’s hard to find a better way of spending 40$ than on ordering a whole duck to share with a friend.