前排去了幾個中國的城市之後發現了一種現象! - Most of the newer upcoming Hyatt Hotels throught China all have a main ground floor restaurant with that massive Open-Kitchen, and more often than not, they sell some high quality Peking Ducks. Whereas, most Shangri-la's in the world carry a 香宮 and unashamedly advertise the fact that the HK branch has achieved 2 Michelin Stars! Wicked..
The Hyatt Regency in HK has also built a Shatin 18 Restaurant which supposedly sells the best Peking Duck in Hong Kong, with kitchen chefs there recruited from famous restaurants in Beijing. With the above information available, it only takes some imaginaton or extrapolation to work out that the new Hyatt in Macau must also sell a decent Peking Duck - and why not? Grand Hyatt in Beijing houses one of the most famous Peking Cuisine & Duck specialists of them all Internationally, namely 'Made in Beijing' aka 长安壹号. According to the manager, some Chefs from Beijing's branch have arrived here in Macau just to oversee the quality assurance and training.
The biggest difference between Macau's Beijing Kitchen (滿堂彩) versus the Peking Duck served at Hong Kong's Shatin 18 however, is that Shatin 18 have obmitted the use of real Fruit Wood Roasting to cook their ducks, even though they've imported the ovens from Beijing directly. Luckily Macau's version, perhaps due to lesse hassles with fire regulations and other restrictions - receives the full deal, making it one of the rarest if not the ONLY restaurant within Hong Kong and Macau region which sells the real thing, aligning it with the 'top echelon' of duck restaurant compatriots in Beijing ! :)
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1) 古法果木烤北京填鴨 -
The duck was pre-reserved to be serve at a specific arrival time, which means you eat the duck at its perfect state without subjected to re-heating, which inevitably loses valuable meat juices and that perfect texture. At MOP320, this sounded like a relative bargain too! As per my experiences in some Beijing Peking Duck restaurants, here they served the Belly Skin first, which was very aromatic and crystalline-crispy. Amazing! Next came a plate of meat and the duck's head, the meat was juicy, succulent and the marination was quite good (but not the best I've ever had), the head meanwhile carries the most Wood Roasty flavouring of it all. The 3rd dish of sliced meat and skin were filling the wraps mostly and also of high quality, although not carrying as much wood-fired flavouring as I'd hoped.
The beautifully 'quarter-folded' mandarin crepes were also of utmost quality and I've never experienced this quality in Hong Kong. Wow! Thin, slightly elasticky, no annoying uncooked flour taste, served hot! Another thing to look forward to is their garlic mince which is recommended to be spooned onto the crepe, which is very authentically Peking like and rarely seen in HK too. For your information, I've heard conflicting info on the type of Wood they use here - some manager guy told me its made from 棗木, whereas another friend who also will cover here soon told me his source revealed its Canadian apple-wood, whereas other places in Beijing might use Lychee wood or even other South American Wood species which works equally just fine if not better! :) I guess they all work somehow but the important thing is, this was one very addictive Duck! But can it still be better? Well its already better than everything I've tried so far in Hong Kong, plus some Beijing versions I've eaten before weren't spectacular either! But yes, this still has room for improvement but its darn close to perfection :) 4.75/5
VEGETABLE DUMPLINGS -
There were very good and way above my expectation. The blended vegetables and tofu were surprisingly very fresh tasty and aromatic, and it wasn't relying on msg neither. The skin was great too. I still crave this vegies dumpling. 4.75/5
PAN FRIED BEEF PANCAKE -
This is very similar to the Pork Pancake dish I had at 京花軒, which I visited after here. The quality of this in hindsight and with a benchmark in mind was also pretty tasty. The external wrap was crispy but not tough-hard, the inner meat filling moist and naturally tasty with the subtlest of spices influence. 4.5/5
FRIED CHINESE SPICED DUCK BONE -
This is part of the Quadrilogy of duck dishes included in the MOP320. The customer gets to pick between a Duck Soup or this fried duck bones dish. What routinely always crosses my mind when such option does come up is whether the soup or the fried dish will cooked from the same carcass that I'd just finished polishing off most of its skin and meat! But I guess that's not so much an issue, as long as it wasn't stored overnight. Anyway this dish have gone well with a beer, although its a bit dry and half of the dish was stronger than the other weaker half! Needs to be cooked more evenly. 3.8/5
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- DO COME FOR THEIR 'NEARLY' AWESOME PEKING DUCK! :)
- THE OTHER BEIJING STYLE FOOD ALSO SEEMINGLY QUITE WELL EXECUTED AND NOTHING TO BESET OUR WHOLE EXPERIENCE.
- ITS CLOSER TO A '5' IN REALITY, BUT GIVE IT A '4' FOR NOW AS THAT GIVES ME ROOM TO RATE AND DISTINGUISH IT FROM MY OTHER LUNCH AT 京花軒! - ALTHOUGH FOR WHAT IT IS AND CONSIDERING THE HIGHLY REASONABLE PRICE POLICY, IT WAS VERY SATISFACTORY AND I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW, IF THERE ARE EVEN COMPARABLE DUCKS, WITHIN THIS REGION!
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