Peking Duck is a dish originally from Beijing, China. It is a specially roasted and basted duck, served with wheat pancakes, scallions, cucumber, and hoisin sauce. But some places, it is elevated to gold level. The first written recipe for Peking Duck is from 800 years ago. The complexities of the recipe and preparation can be read here. Our duck was served with sugar and pineapple chunks giving it a tropical and extra luxurious feel. There was also edible gold leaf on top, like a cherry on top. Surprisingly, the half duck portion only cost 48 bucks. It was enough for three people, with the addition of a few extra pancakes and some fried rice.
We had our duck at Jiang Nan, in Queens, New York. It is subway accessible, if you want a cheap but long ride. It is located in Flushing, Queens, which is the largest unofficial chinatown in America. Our restaurant had atmospheric private rooms that took us away to a tea house in the Orient.
Aside from the duck, we had shrimp fried rice. It is not as simple as it seemed. A really good fried rice is about the aroma — not of oil but of umami. This one was like a warm hug.
Folks told me that Lima’s Chinatown was not that exciting. I’m glad that people played it down. When I saw it for myself, I was pleasantly surprised.
Chinatown consists of a small pedestrian street with requisite arch and aura cleaners… and many shops and mini-malls in the surrounding streets. Chinatown is actually very close to Lima’s central square, the Plaza de Armas.
I was pleased to see that the Chinese stores also sold Thai curry paste and other rare items here in Peru.
In almost every shop, there were items that I did not recognize. That’s part of the fun of exploring.
Considering that the Chinese (mostly from Canton) got to Peru a bit after they got to California in the 1800s, in many ways, lots of Peruvian food is Chinese food. For example, the Peruvians love fried rice, “chaufa,” and eating Chinese food from a “chifa” is a normal part of life.
As I was checking out at one store, I noticed that a last minute “temptation” like chewing gum or candy, were snack packs of chicken feet (three, which I thought an odd number).
When I went a restaurant to get some fried rice and wanted to make sure that their recipe did not involve soy sauce, the owners of the restaurant TOLD me that I’d have it with soup (what is a meal without soup?) and they tried to teach me how to order “chaufa” without soy sauce. In Chinese.