Chongqing's Famous Dishes: A Clear Soup Duck Hot Pot, Called Beijing Roast Duck?

In the Chongqing food circles, a food law is circulating: no matter what delicious food comes to Chongqing, it will gradually become more Chongqing-like, becoming similar to the habits of Chongqing people.

Yes, that's right.

Take Chongqing people eating dumplings, very few people dip them in vinegar like northerners do, they usually make their own spicy and numbing dipping sauce.

And Taiwanese beef noodles coming to Chongqing, the stores not only provide homemade chili oil bubbles, but also include a hand-made pickled cabbage.

Then, what wonderful chemical reactions will happen when Peking duck meets Chongqing? Come with YouPin to take a look!

In Chongqing, the most representative Peking duck is ‘Shou Chai Lu’ (), just like authentic Peking duck, the duck is roasted until the skin is crispy and the meat is tender, cut into uniform slices and placed in a special container to maintain the duck's texture and temperature.

Eating duck, besides the duck meat itself, you need another set of accompaniments: dough skin, green onions, cucumber strips and a dark sauce.

When you eat it, first spread the dough skin on your hands, dip the duck in the sauce and place it in the middle of the dough skin, then add appropriate green onions and cucumber strips, and you can wrap it up and stuff it into your mouth.

Your mouth is stuffed with all kinds of ingredients, and when you chew, you can feel the different textures of the ingredients, which go very well with the sauce.

But this is Chongqing's Peking duck, it will not be so simple, it must be a whole hot pot to eat it.

However, this hot pot is not a traditional Chongqing hot pot, it’s a clear soup old duck soup hot pot.

Old duck soup hot pot, as the name suggests, is to use old duck soup to blanch dishes, old duck soup is made with the duck bones and pickled radish, it's a Chongqing home-style dish.

Because it's a clear soup, it doesn't have chili, it’s suitable for men and women, and the elderly, it has a cooling and detoxifying effect, so Chongqing's old duck soup hot pot is also very popular.

First drink the soup, then eat the duck, this is the traditional way Chongqing people eat Peking duck. After finishing the duck, you still won’t be full, that’s when you can truly show your skills – use old duck soup to blanch dishes.

Without tripe and duck intestines, without yellow eel and fish, old duck soup hot pot needs to blanch these relatively mild dishes, such as egg dumplings, shrimp dumplings, enoki mushrooms, lotus root, green vegetables, beef rolls and noodles.

Unlike the flavor of spicy and numbing hot pot, these dishes have another flavor under the catalysis of old duck soup – it’s a delicate flavor with a little oiliness and a taste of sweetness and sour.

What a wonderful flavor, who knows better than you!

Maybe you’re wondering, with just a clear soup, can Chongqing people really get used to it? The answer is of course: no!

So, the store also added Chongqing people love to eat spicy and numbing beef slices, braised duck necks, and braised duck heads to the menu. A whole duck was presented from inside out on this table.

Plus, with braised tofu and garlic cucumber salad, the foodies’ choices are even more abundant.

In 2017, ‘Shou Chai Lu’ () was named a Chongqing old brand, although it’s Peking duck, it has become a Chongqing old brand, which is really amazing.

Could it be that in the future, we’ll have to call it ‘Chongqing Peking Duck’ to refer to this way of eating?

Northern friends who have tried it all say, no matter what title it has or what name it is called, if it's delicious, it's enough for us.

Because Chongqing’s Peking duck is completely different from the way northerners eat it, old duck soup is really delicious, and you can drink several bowls at a time.

Do you want to try this ‘Chongqing Peking Duck’?