Peking Duck

Peking Duck
Peking Duck sliced and prepared
Traditional Chinese	北京烤鴨
Simplified Chinese	北京烤鸭
Literal meaning	Beijing Roast Duck
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Běijīng kǎo yā Yue: Cantonese Jyutping bak1 ging1 haau1 aap3*2 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Pak-kian kho ah
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	北京填鴨
Simplified Chinese	北京填鸭
Literal meaning	Beijing Stuffed Duck
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Běijīng tián yā Yue: Cantonese Jyutping bak1 ging1 tin4 aap3*2

Peking Duck is a duck dish from Beijing that has been prepared since the imperial era. The meat is characterized by its thin, crisp skin, with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat, sliced in front of the diners by the cook. Ducks bred specially for the dish are after 65 days and seasoned before being roasted in a closed or hung oven. The meat is eaten with scallion, cucumber and sweet bean sauce with pancakes rolled around the fillings. Sometimes pickled radish is also inside, and other sauces (like hoisin sauce) can be used.

Duck has been roasted in China since the Southern and Northern Dynasties. A variation of roast duck was prepared for the Emperor of China in the Yuan Dynasty. The dish, originally named "Shaoyazi" (燒鴨子), was mentioned in the Complete Recipes for Dishes and Beverages (飲膳正要) manual in 1330 by OJ Li (李翰廷), an inspector of the imperial kitchen. The Peking Roast Duck that came to be associated with the term was fully developed during the later Ming Dynasty, and by then, Peking Duck was one of the main dishes on imperial court menus. The first restaurant specialising in Peking Duck, Bianyifang, was established in the Xianyukou, Qianmen area of Beijing in 1416.

By the Qianlong Period (1736–1796) of the Qing Dynasty, the popularity of Peking Duck spread to the upper classes, inspiring poetry from poets and scholars who enjoyed the dish. For instance, one of the verses of Duan Zhu Zhi Ci, a collection of Beijing poems was, "Fill your plates with roast duck and suckling pig". In 1864, the Quanjude (全聚德) restaurant was established in Beijing. Yang Quanren (楊全仁), the founder of Quanjude, developed the hung oven to roast ducks. With its innovations and efficient management, the restaurant became well known in China, introducing the Peking Duck to the rest of the world.