Bian Yi Fang Roast Duck: a Signature Dish of Beijing Cuisine

When you visit Beijing, one quintessential dish to try is the renowned Peking roast duck. Roast duck is a signature dish of Beijing cuisine. To detail the history of roast duck in Beijing, we will rewind the clock back to the early Southern and Northern dynasties, and follow time into the Yuan dynasty when the dish graced the banquet tables of emperors.

There are usually two ways to cook roast duck: closed-oven represented by Bianyifang Restaurant and hanging-oven represented by Quanjude. The duck cooked in a closed oven is a representative dish of Bian Yi Fang, which boasts of the oldest restaurant among China’s time-honored brands. Bian Yi Fang was established in 1416. The restaurant chain’s stew-grilled style is listed as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Bianyifang is the inventor of closed-oven roast duck. Closed-oven roast duck is cooked with the heat emitting from oven walls instead of fire. The closed oven is built of brick and fitted with metal griddles. The oven is preheated by burning Gaoliang sorghum straw at the base. Ducks are placed in a brick oven after the oven is heated by burning sorghum straw. Usually, a closed oven can roast five to seven ducks. Cooked in this way, the roast duck doesn’t get stained with ashes.

Temperature in the oven is crucial to the texture of duck meat because the duck is cooked through the convection of heat inside the oven. Ducks are generally sealed inside the preheated oven for half an hour.

Whilst an extremely rich meat, the dish is popular with locals and tourists, with the fiery ovens thought to give the duck extra flavor. Beijing duck is usually enjoyed in thin pancakes rolled around spring onions and cucumber.

Let’s try closed-oven roast duck at Bianyifang Restaurant. A bite of the delicious roast duck makes all your sorrows disappear.

Copyright: SKETCHES OF CLASSIC BEIJING, China Pictorial Press

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