There is a saying in Beijing: "To the Great Wall is a trip for real heroes; Peking duck at Quanjude is food for real gourmets." Beijing Roast Duck has become a not only nationwide but also worldwide recognized culinary creation. But this dish had existed much earlier as a delicacy for the aristocracy before  1864  when  the  Quanjude (Repository of All Virtues), the original roast duck restaurant, was opened in the Qianmen Street of Beijing.After 1949, it was moved to the eastern side of Qianmen Street, near Haoshikou. Later it established another large restaurant by Hepingmen. Now it has  become the Quanjude Group Company,  consisting of three major restaurants一Hepingmen, Qianmen and Wangfujing as well as many branches in other places in China and abroad.

Beijing roast duck is one of China's traditional dishes. To eat it is a pleasure for visitors who come from all corners of the globe. This famous dish is prepared from specially raised Beijing crammed duck using a particular and exclusive roasting process. The golden-brown roast duck reaches a perfect combination of colour, aroma and taste with its crisp thin skin, mouth-melting meat and delicious flavour.

Beijing duck is not only roasted as a delicious food but also can be prepared in 400 different ways, as sliced duck with onions, duck slices with tomato sauce, three colour duck cubes, braised duck and cubed duck with peas. The duck is selected by all restaurants with delicate methods from feeding and killing to frying, roasting, slicing, and serving. The giblets, webs, bones and other organs and parts of the duck can be cooked into different hot dishes, cold dishes and soups.

 

The cooking process is long and complicated one. First of all, the duck is scaled in boiling water, coated with molasses, pumped with air, and then hung up to dry for as long as 48 hours. Then it is slowly and evenly roasted over a fire of peach, and pear wood until it turns golden brown and looks almost lacquered. In this state, the shiny creature is carried to the dinner table on a platter for presentation and approval (applause is appropriate-not for the duck, but for the kitchen staff). The roast bird is sliced before the dinner, who then dips duck slices into a sweet bean sauce and wrap it with pieces of green Chinese onion into paper-thin pancakes. The resulting greasy and dripping cylinder of duck-filled dough can be eaten with fingers.

Most of Beijing roast duck restaurants serve "all-duck banquet", which may indude 30-odd cold and hot duck courses, such as crystal duck tongues, mustard duck palms, fried duck liver and gizzard, stewed duck soup, braised duck entrails, lotus (egg white) duck kidneys, etc.

Slicing the duck is truly a professional skill. A chef can slice a whole duck into over 90 to 100 odd thin pieces of similar sizes with dazzling speed, while each slice is edged by the crisp brown-orange skin. The banquet usually ends with a rich cream-colored duck soup made of the sliced duck frame.