Peking Duck

The Peking Duck dinner will also be unforgettable. This makes at least top two for best meal I've ever had. The tradition is to take a flour wrap (about the size, shape, and thickness of a corn tortilla), small slices of cucumber (length of normal celery slices in America), a few slices of green onion (size and shape of long toothpicks), some duck meat, and dip all of these in a sauce before placing them on the wrap, rolling it up tight like a mini buttito, and eating it. There's a catch, all of the picking up, dipping, placing, and rolling has to be done with chopsticks. As you can imagine, only skill will bring the best looking rolls. But nonetheless, the rolls I made were delicious. The first bite is an explosion of flavor. The first recognizable flavor is the sauce. A sort of sweet, tangy, salty mix that floods the air in your mouth, priming your brain for the delicious combination of cucumber and duck. The cucumber is unique, a sort of cool and crisp and refreshing taste that comes with a small crunch. The onion is very mild, not very strong, but it has the characteristically tangy sweetness. Then there is the duck. I've only ever had duck once before China. It was awful. But this was beyond words. The grease and the juicy goodness that adds to the unique, meaty, delicious flavor. On top of the sauce and vegetables, the duck is hard to taste, but it is a perfect addition that that makes the complete combination of all these flavors both incomprehensible and unforgettable. I had four or five rolls and many other fantastic Chinese dishes along with them, and it almost seems I was still hungry when we left.