We were due to go to the Da Dong restaurant for a social evening with one of Richard’s customers when the poor man called in sick with ‘flu. But we kept the table booking and went all the same.
The Da Dong restaurant is on Nanjing Xi Lu, Nanjing Road West, towards the middle of the city. It’s a branch of a famous Beijing restaurant and its speciality is Peking (Beijing) Duck.
- Tony Blair's note
We arrived before our appointed time (getting a taxi can be so unpredictable) on the fifth floor of a modern block and as we were early we were invited to join the others hanging around and to help ourselves to wine from the red or white wine boxes (!) or from the tea thermos which produced some cold tea. Seeing a framed endorsement from Tony Blair above the help-yourselves-to-drinks section did nothing but add to my declining view of the place.
- Da Dong Restaurant Shanghai
However amongst the bright white walls and furnishings and the neon lights I did notice a photograph of someone I recognised. A chef, but I couldn’t remember where on earth I had seen him before. Richard pointed out that he had featured in the section on Peking duck in the BBC programme “Exploring China: A Culinary Adventure” with Ken Hom and Ching-He Huang, so my spirits lifted somewhat, as this was the Shanghai branch of his famous restaurant.
- Ginkgo nuts and lily bulbs
After being shown to our table and a brief scan of the menu (deciding that it wasn’t sea cucumber’s night after all) we both went for the signature dish of duck served Beijing style. For a starter we ordered some greens and a dish of ginkgo nuts and fresh lily bulbs. When the latter arrived it was such a pretty dish, tasted wonderful and despite the shiny glaze over everything, was not too difficult to pick up with a pair of chopsticks.
- Peking Duck
If you’ve not had Peking Duck before, the traditional dish involves being presented with the ingredients at the table and you then make up your own roll – all with chopsticks. You start with a Chinese pancake being kept warm in the steamer (a feat with chop sticks) and then spread it with a thick brown sauce made from fermented wheatflour called Tian Mian Jiang. This is unavailable in the west so substitutes are made using either Hoi Sin sauce (Cantonese) or yellow bean sauce. To this smeared pancake you then add a small amount of shredded duck, and then a few matchsticks of cucumber and spring onions. Then with your best-ever chopstick skills you fold in three "sides" of the pancake to make a parcel, pick up the whole thing and chew off mouthfuls. (Well that’s the theory, anyway).
- Duck carved at the table
At Da Dong’s the whole dish was made more theatrical by the duck being carved at your table by a chef in full whites. The normal tray of cucumber and onions was replaced by a much more colourful and varied selection tray. When the chef took off strips of skin he showed us that we were to dip this in the salt section of this selection. He then took of the leg bones and they were put on a dish for us to eat separately later. The breast meat was carved into very small pieces and laid on a serving dish on a nightlight warmer.
- Selection tray for duck pancakes
Once this was done a waitress came and showed us how to make up the pancakes, just in case we didn’t know what we were doing and then we were left to our own devices.
It was good to taste the real sauce Tian Mian Jiang sauce, which we hadn’t done before, and the other accompaniments made things more interesting than usual. After we had demolished the duck we were given a small bowl of duck soup (delicious) and a small bowl on beige coloured congee – a rice porridge – which did nothing to add to our experience.
- Kumquats in ice
Finally the whole meal was topped off unexpectedly with some large luscious kumquats served in a pile of chipped ice with a piece of ruscus for decoration. They were like eating fresh marmalade, absolutely delicious, and so much better than the nasty little kumquats we get back home.
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