When you are in China's Jiangsu province, especially in its capital city Nanjing, you will see pale looking ducks hanging in restaurant windows on every street (okay... but only a slight exaggeration 🤭).
The mighty Yangtze River, its tributaries, and the Grand Canal run near Nanjing - surrounded by ponds and lakes, the area is ideal water fowl territory since ancient times.
According to lore, Ming Dynasty emperor Chu Yuanchang (reign 1368 - 1398) got so annoyed about losing sleep because of rooster crowing that he ordered all chicken banned from Nanjing. Hence, ducks became the poultry of choice in China's old capital.
Come to think of it, I didn't see any chicken dishes in Nanjing during my visits 🤔
In China, they say "北烤鸭, 南板鸭" North roast duck, South salted duck. But even Beijing duck, China's most famous poultry dish, has its roots in Nanjing. (I have that story in this post.)
Though no longer the capital of China, Nanjing is still known as the duck capital of China 鸭都.
According to most references, Nanjing salted duck is at least 1,500 years old.
It is recorded in 陈书 written in 636AD that 陈军 “人人裹饭, 媲以鸭肉", "炊米煮鸭" The Chen army had duck cooked with rice.
The dish is also known as Jin Ling salted duck 金陵盐水鸭. Jinling 金陵 is the old name of today's Nanjing during the Six Dynasties Era (222AD - 581AD). The dish is mentioned in the List of Jinling’s Delicacies, curated by gourmet Tongzhi Zhang in 1947.
Making Nanjing salted duck 盐水鸭 is a tedious time consuming process that takes at least five days.
The gutted and cleaned year old bird is rubbed with salt and spices such as star anise, peppercorn, etc. Marinate in aged marinade 老卤. Air cool and dry the marinated duck. It is then cooked by dunking and simmering in slow heat 95℃ water with ginger, spring onion, rice wine, etc. The cooked duck is air cooled and rested for five days before serving. Nanjing salted duck is enjoyed at ambient temperature.
Nanjing salted duck is a Huaiyang dish, considered the top of China's eight great cuisines. Cutting skill is highly valued in Huaiyang cuisine, and carving a Nanjing salted duck properly takes years to master.
In Nanjing, they have a saying that good salted duck is 皮白, 肉红, 骨头绿 "white skin, red meat, green bones".
The skin is thick but soft and smooth. It is salty with slight spice and duck gamey taste which I enjoy.
The pink meat is soft tender, moist, salty gamey sweet with slight spice flavours and aromas. It's actually quite addictive as it doesn't have the same. greasy guilty sin feel of roast duck (in my subjective experience lah).
Some Nanjing salted duck are simmered with osmanthus flowers in the water so it has a floral taste and fragrance, hence it is sometimes called 桂花鸭 osmanthus duck.
"Green bones" means the bones are ideally cooked through, which makes sense as these are water fowl and ponds are virus hotbeds. The salty bones are crazy good beer and baijiu liqour 白酒 food 🍺
The best place for Nanjing salted duck is needless to say, in Nanjing, Jiangsu. In Singapore, I like the Nanjing salted duck by Nanjing Impressions at Plaza Singapura.
They have a vacuum packed boxed gift set. I received one for participating in an event by Travellution Singapore. It was very convenient and delicious 😋
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You may also try salted duck at Benson Salted Duck at blk 168 Toa Payoh, the only hawker stall serving this dish in Singapore 👈 click
Written by Tony Boey on 7 Jul 2024
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