modern peking duck

Seeing how the crazy queues have finally dwindled, I got my hands on a box of Modern Peking Duck at the I_ON food hall. It is basically a somewhat simplified fast food version of the perennial Chinese restaurant favorite. The pieces duck meat were quite tender in most part, with the fats oozing out as you bite into the roll. The skin was, however, was uncrispy by most definitions. What is also lacking are the greens - sliced cucmber and spring onion, that is usually wrapped together with the duck, to add crunch and to serve as a counterpoint to the heaviness of the meat. Sold in boxes of 5 pieces, I have to admit the pre-rolled roast duck were still somewhat satisfying (how can duck fat not be), though it lacked the aura of enjoying peking duck in a restaurant.

As if continuing the modernist project of mass production and standardization for some future socialist utopia, the process of producing the wrapped duck rolls feels impersonal and almost mechanical. The roast duck was speedily (and almost mechanically) sliced up by the chef after which the slices of duck were wrapped en masse in pre cut sheets of egg crepe with a dash of hoi sin sauce. What remains of the duck carcass was promptly piled on top of the mountian of other matyred duck and the chef grabs another crispy fowl beginning the process all over again.

Having pre-wrapped peking duck in a box is just not quite the same as having it in a restaurant. Watching the waitress slicing off the crispy duck skin at tableside and serving it on a platter from which you pick a slice to roll in a piece of rice crepe, together with cucmber and spring onions and as much or as little hoi sin sauce as you wish. If you can gather a few friends or family, you are probably better off going together to a chinese restaurant to share a whole peking duck, it is likely that price will not be much more than a equivalent portion at Modern Peking Duck, and you get to share the experience with good company sitting around a dining table, not wandering about a mall. But if you are alone and just want a quick fix, pop down to I_ON and join the queue, if there is any at all. I recommend eating it on the spot, seeing how the skin has already lost it crispiness when served, it will be worse of if you left the duck rolls tumbling within the oversized box and letting the hoi sin sauce soak through the egg crepe.



Modern Peking Duck
#B4-75 I_ON Orchard
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