Imperial Peking Duck Feast

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Peking Duck, a duck dish originating from Beijing, is easily the most celebrated and famous dish in China. Being prized for its crispy and paper-thin skin, this dish was served in imperial courts to the Emperor of China in the olden days. Now, you don’t need to be an Emperor to savour this prized dish, for Toh Yuen has just installed a Peking duck oven, to roast ducks for your dining pleasure. Curious to know how the duck was roasted, I walked into the oven area to be greeted by an immense heat and a fragrant, smoky aroma.

Roasted Peking Duck in the oven

According to the chef, the duck had to be cleaned and hung to dry for about one day, before it was placed into the oven. Then, it was roasted for about 40 minutes until the duck skin caramelized in the oven, a signal that it’s ready to be eaten.

Chinese tea pot

Once ready, the Chef removed the freshly roasted duck from the oven and skilfully sliced it before our very eyes, evenly. During this process, a continuous stream of vapour emitted from the duck, indicating how hot it actually was.

Peking Duck and condiments

Slicing the duck skin

Once the skin was sliced off, he divided it evenly into perfect rectangular pieces, ready to be used in the next step.

Perfectly rectangular slices of duck skin

The complete serving of duck skin

The skill of the chef was shown when he perfectly sliced the duck skin with almost no meat underneath it. It was quite a sight to behold. The resulting crispy duck skin was then placed onto a slice of pancake glazed with homemade sauce, and topped with cucumber slices, spring onion, carrot and beetroot. The combination was then folded and rolled up, before it was placed on a serving plate.

The traditional and modern way of wrapping Peking duck

The various sauces

Apart from rolling it with traditional ingredients, the creative chef came up with a special recipe, I’d like to call it a “modern” recipe, to roll up duck with fruits instead. There was a combination of dragon fruit, honey dew, kiwi and mango to name a few. I personally found this version to be pretty refreshing because of the nice play of flavours – the savoury duck skin, the sweet mango and the sour kiwi made this combination work.

Roll it the traditional way

The modern way of rolling Peking duck

The traditional version of the duck roll was savoury and slightly sweet from the hoisin sauce, while retaining a nice crunch to it from the vegetable slices within. The crispy and juicy duck skin was flavourful, more so because of the caramelized maltose layer on the surface. It was Peking duck at its best.

Peking duck in pancake

The complete serving of Peking duck and the condiments

The remainder of the Peking Duck meat was not wasted as the chef brilliantly cooked up a variety of dishes that incorporated the duck meat as well as duck bone! The first of the creative dishes we had was the Chilled Salsa Duck Roll, which was a spring roll of duck meat and mango cubes wrapped in a transparent pancake. This dish was a combination of warm duck meat and cold mango cubes, making it a delight to savour. The mangoes were sweet and juicy but did not overpower the slice of duck meat within, very nicely done.

Chilled Salsa Duck Roll

Spot the duck meat

For the next course, we could opt for either Braised Duck Soup with Sea Cucumber and Herbs or Braised Shark’s Fin Soup with Crab Meat and Tobiko. Since we were there to savour the goodness of duck, my choice was the duck soup, which came in a bowl of aromatic clear soup with plenty of ingredients within. The sea cucumber was sizable and soft, while the use of duck bone without the skin gave this soup a healthy outlook without an oily surface. It was a light yet flavoursome dish.

Braised Duck Soup with Sea Cucumber and Herbs

My dining partner chose the Braised Shark’s Fin Soup with Crab Meat and Tobiko instead, which was served in bright orange fish eggs on top.

Braised Shark’s Fin Soup with Crab Meat and Tobiko

For the main course, we were served with Pan Fried Cod Fish with Sweet and Spicy Sauce Topping with Vegetables Julienne. To be honest, it was my first time having fried cod fish because, God forbid, a piece of meat that smooth and tender should be enjoyed without losing any of its original charm. Surprisingly though, the frying process did not kill much of the cod fish’s original flavour nor tenderness, for what lay beneath the crispy outlook was a fillet of smooth and juicy meat, that left me craving for more.

Pan Fried Cod Fish with Sweet and Spicy Sauce

If you’re not a fish person, another option in the menu was the Braised Broccoli with Sea Cucumber and Prawn. Each person was served with one reasonably large prawn which was oh-s0-succulent and fresh. It almost gave me the feeling that the prawns were still swimming just moments ago, before ending up in my lucky stomach. I only wish I had more than one piece!

Braised Broccoli with Sea Cucumber and Prawn

In every Chinese set meal, there’s bound to be a carb-laden dish at the end to fill up whatever tummy space there is still available. In our case, it was filled with Clay Pot Braised Duck Rice with Flower Mushroom. The generous amount of duck and mushrooms used in this rice emitted a very aromatic fragrant that made us hungry all over again.

Clay Pot Braised Duck Rice with Flower Mushroom

I love anything cooked in clay pot! Even though I thought the rice lacked of flavour (tasted a tad bland), the juicy mushrooms managed to somewhat save the dish.

Duck rice

Last but not least, to sweeten our palate, we had the Coffee Pudding as dessert. This was served chilled with a dash of cream and a strawberry on top. I thought the pudding was nothing to shout about although the flavour of coffee was evident. The texture was dense and firm, making this quite a filling dessert after all.

Coffee Pudding

Fruit basket

The fantastic Imperial Peking Duck experience would not have been possible if not for the talented Master Chef Lee, who took the effort and initiative to introduce this Chinese delicacy to us with a twist.

Master Chef Lee of Toh Yuen

Dining environment at Toh Yuen, Hilton PJ

The unique Peking Duck experience is available from RM99++ per person, which includes a seven-course dinner and the duck-carving demonstration.

Toh Yuen Restaurant at Hilton Petaling Jaya

Toh Yuen Restaurant
Hilton Petaling Jaya
No. 2, Jalan Barat,
46200 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel No: +603-7955 9122 ext 4073/4
Fax No: +603-7955 3909
Opening Hours: 12 – 2.30pm, 7 – 10.30pm
Website: www.ZestPJ.com