走近北京烤鸭

You know that thing? That thing that’s everywhere, and it sounds like something you should already know about, so you don’t really want to ask? Well, we know about it, and we’ll give you the intel.

How popular a delicacy is Peking duck? Popular enough to warrant an10,000 square-foot museum dedicated to it in China.

It’s located in the downtown Beijing branch of the restaurant chainQuanjude, which has been serving roast duck since 1864. (Not too shabby!) Among the 500 items on display are a coupon from a 1901 duck sale and photographs of Mao Zedong chowing down.

Peking duck ranks high among the Chinese dishes that have made the trek Westward, but there’s a lot to it that you may not know. We asked Ed Schoenfeld, the co-owner of Decoy, a Peking duck-themed restaurant that opened this past spring in New York City, to help us fill in the gaps.

How It’s Made: Peking duck takes several days to prepare. First, fatty birds bred specifically for the dish are pumped with air to separate the skin from its meat. This insures that the “skin [is] very crispy and the meat succulent,” said Schoenfeld. They’re then scalded with boiling water, painted with a sweet mixture of maltose and water, and hung inside a 500-degree oven for up to 75 minutes. Only then are the ducks artfully sliced and trimmed of excess fat.

What the Name Means: The dish takes its name from a now out-of-favor transliteration of “Beijing.” In English, the dish is often called “Beijing duck” or simply “roast duck.”

Where It Comes From: The first Peking duck was roasted some time during the early 15th century, when it was a popular dish on imperial court menus of the Ming Dynasty. During this era, “the really great chefs didn’t really work in restaurants,” Schoenfeld said. “They worked for patrons, much in the same way as a painter or a composer had a patron in court in Renaissance Europe.” These chefs helped define imperial cuisine, which in turn influenced the cuisine of the entire country.

How It’s Eaten: A Peking duck is often sliced tableside and served alongside cucumbers and scallions. The components are wrapped in a thin flour pancake, which is slathered with any of several savory sauces.

In the United States, the sauce is usually a thick-and-sweet Hoisin sauce, which is made with soy sauce, black bean paste, honey, and rice vinegar. But in China, Schoenfeld said, the sauce of choice is a ”sweet brown soybean-based sauce,” or in Beijing specifically, a salty “yellow soybean sauce that is its first cousin.”

Where It’s Eaten: In both the US and China, there are several restaurants devoted exclusively to the dish—Decoy and Quanjude being prime examples, respectively. But many restaurants also serve Peking duck in another way.

"In China, there’s banquet cooking," Schoenfeld said, which can be very elaborate (and expensive affairs). "Very often you eat Peking duck as one course of a ten-course banquet … [though] if you’re at a very elegant banquet, you’d only eat the skin of the duck."

While Schoenfeld said eating just the skin seems a terrible waste, he thinks a museum devoted to the dish is an excellent idea.

"I think we need to make a strategic alliance right away," he said of Quanjude. "I’d love to be one of the [museum’s] first visitors.”

知道这是什么吗？看样子你早就知道了，所以你也不想问对吗？那就让我来告诉你其中的奥秘。

北京烤鸭这道美味到底有多受欢迎？在中国有一个1万平方英尺（约929平方米）以北京烤鸭为主题的博物馆。

位于北京市中心的全聚德连锁店自1864年起就开始做北京烤鸭了。在展出的500件物品中，有一张1901年的烤鸭购买券以及毛泽东吃烤鸭的照片。

在传入西方的中国美食中，北京烤鸭名列前茅，不过其中仍有你不知道的奥秘。我们请教了Decoy餐厅的合伙老板舍恩菲尔德（Ed Schoenfeld），让他为我们科普北京烤鸭的知识，Decoy是今年春天在纽约开张的一家北京烤鸭主题餐厅。

北京烤鸭是怎样炼成的：制作北京烤鸭需要花几天时间进行准备。首先专供制作北京烤鸭的肥美鸭肉要经过真空处理，使皮肉分离。“这样才能确保鸭皮酥脆，肉质鲜嫩，”舍恩菲尔德说道。接下来把鸭子放入沸水白灼，并涂上用麦芽糖与水调配的酱料，最后放进500度高温的烤箱烹制75分钟。只有这样切成片的烤鸭才会肥瘦均匀。

名字的寓意：这道菜名由地名北京音译而来。在英语中，我们通常叫做“北京烤鸭”或者直接叫“烤鸭”。

北京烤鸭从哪来：第一只北京烤鸭可追溯至15世纪早期，那时候这道菜在明朝皇室的菜单里十分受欢迎。在这一时期，“真正的大厨并不在餐馆工作，”舍恩菲尔德说道。“他们为雇主工作，类似于欧洲文艺复兴时期为王室工作的画家和作曲家。”这些厨师立下皇家烹饪标准，最终对整个国家的烹饪都产生了深远影响。

怎样吃：北京烤鸭通常需要切片，佐以黄瓜和大葱食用。所有食材都卷在一张薄薄的面饼里，并蘸上多种酱汁。

在美国，人们通常选用由酱油、黑豆酱、蜂蜜与米醋调配而成的浓稠而味甜的海鲜酱。但是在中国尤其是北京，舍恩菲尔德说，用的是一种“以黄豆为主制成的棕色甜酱”。

在哪吃：美国和中国都有不少北京烤鸭专卖店——Decoy和全聚德就分别是最好的例子。不过也有许多餐厅以其他方式供应北京烤鸭。

“中国有宴会，”舍恩菲尔德说，宴会的菜肴十分精致（当然价格也不菲）。“通常烤鸭只是十道宴会菜肴中的一道……如果你出席的是一场高雅的宴会，那么你只能吃到鸭皮。”

尽管舍恩菲尔德说只吃皮似乎很浪费，不过他认为烤鸭专营店是个极好的主意。

“当务之急是要建立战略合作联盟，”谈起全聚德，舍恩菲尔德说道。“我想成为店里的首批食客。”