DucKing

ducking

I went to DucKing at Jaya One for our monthsary dinner on Friday night. DucKing (“The Different One”) seems to be wordplay on the story The Ugly Duckling (which turned out to be a swan if you forgot your Hans Christian Andersen).

ducking montage

DucKing is packed pretty much all the time – we waited 15 minutes for our turn to be seated, but the waitress was gracious enough to let us in when she couldn’t contact the previous two ahead of us on the queue list. There seem to be some problems with communication though – I got four calls during dinner saying that my seat is ready and I told them each time that I was already inside.

ducking menu

Price for this menu: RM 1,500 ++. I have been trying to spot this when I saw it on Cheesie’s blog and true enough; it’s in there. Haha!

ducking wine

I ordered INTIS (RM 78) an Argentinean Merlot meaning Sun God. It’s the cheapest wine on the menu – I haven’t started working yet, tomorrow is my first day at work so we figured we needed to conserve our funds. My girlfriend went for the Chinese tea, although she had a small amount (slightly more than thimble sized) of red wine as well.

ducking duck tongue

You can’t go to an establishment named DucKing and not order duck so for the appetizer, we had the Marinated Duck Tongue with X.O Sauce (RM 16.80). It tasted surprisingly good, I can’t remember ever having duck tongue before. This one is served with the tendon (bone?) under the tongue intact, and the slight crunchiness adds to the appeal.

ducking peking duck

Next on the menu was the Beijing Duck Two Varieties. I ordered 1/2 a duck. It’s RM 38.80 for 1/2 a duck and RM 62.80 for a whole duck. I love Peking Duck, especially the process that goes with it. Unfortunately, DucKing does not have the chef carve the skin off the duck in front of you.

ducking beijing duck

Peking Duck comes in four (4) dishes – the crispy roasted duck skin, the paper-thin flour wrap, spring onions and other vegetables for garnish and flavor, and the sauce itself.

ducking duck montage

Basically, you take one flour wrap and place a piece (or two) of crispy roasted duck skin on top before adding some spring onions and dousing it with sauce. It is then wrapped like a tortilla. There is some debate about whether the sauce goes on first, but I prefer it just before I wrap up the entire thing.

ducking duck wrap

The Peking Duck at DucKing is great! I love the soft, fragile flour wrap. I’m amazed at how tissue paper-thin it is. Excellent.

ducking bun

Beijing Duck is usually served in two or three courses – the skin in wrap, the meat cooked with vegetables and the bones in soup. Most establishments nowadays do away with the third installment though. DucKing gives you the choice of a wide range of preparations for the second course – we opted for the Deep Fried Bun with Roasted Duck Meat & Black Pepper Sauce (RM Included in the price of Beijing Duck).

ducking vegetable

The vegetable component of the food pyramid is completed with Braised Baby Kailan with Crab Meat (RM 28.80). DucKing cooks this dish with egg and starch and they’re very generous with the crab meat – it’s definitely proportionate with the price. There are huge chunks of whole crab meat inside the dish. Very nice indeed.

ducking abalone

For the last dish, we indulged in the Braised Abalone with Shimeji Mushroom and Broccoli (RM 72.80). The abalone is indeed cooked to perfection and matches the sauce well. The mushroom is paired perfectly with the abalone and came out juicy and tender. I used the broccoli to mop up the sauce, that’s how good it was.

DucKing does a very brisk business and the food is good, although it comes out very fast, suggesting mass production (or a chef with really deft fingers). The bill came up to a total of RM 280.85 but the bulk of that is from the wine and the abalone.

ducking us

Happy monthsary, dear! Love always.

Yes, that is our couple t-shirt and also the distinctive look of a bulge in my abdomen from eating excessively these few weeks. πŸ˜‰

Li Garden Chinese Restaurant

li garden chinese restaurant

Li Garden Chinese Restaurant is located in Hock Lee Center. It’s one
of the premier Chinese restaurants in Kuching. I have also been to the
recently renovated Tsui Hua Lau restaurant, but unfortunately, I didn’t
bring my digicam coz I thought it was just going to be our weekly
meeting. A slightly similar, but different, fate befell me yesterday at
Li Garden Chinese restaurant. I didn’t take as many photos as I wanted
to, coz it was a company dinner to accommodate a guest from Taiwan. I
didn’t think it would be polite. πŸ˜‰ Hello JP!

li garden interior

Li Garden Chinese restaurant was pretty full when we got there last
night. It’s a nice place, with sealed off rooms for banquets. The decor
is not as extravagant as the newly redecorated Tsui Hua Lau though, I
didn’t see sharks swimming in large tanks. Heh!

li garden soup

The course started with soup double boiled in a classic soup holder.
It’s made with thinly chicken stomach (gizzard), a yellow date-type
thing and pepper. The double boiling method makes the soup very rich
and invigorating. The heavy pepper flavored soup is hearty and the meat
is nicely tender and chewy.

li garden peking duck

Li Garden Chinese Restaurant is famous for it’s Peking Duck. It’s
the only establishment in Kuching where they actually bring out the
whole duck on a cart and the chef expertly slices off the skin of the
Peking Duck in front of you.

li garden peking skin

I was surprised at the skilled manipulation of the chef, that
harvested all the Peking Duck skin (the part which you eat), leaving
only a juicy naked duck, white and steaming hot, on the platter, which
is then wheeled away. You don’t eat the meat of this dish, just the
skin.

li garden peking platter

Here’s what Li Garden’s Peking Duck looks like. The large platter is
served with the skin of Peking Duck, freshly sliced off the duck. It’s
served with folded round pastry, spring onions and cucumbers, and the
Peking Duck sauce.

li garden peking wrap

Basically, you take one of the folded pieces of pastry, unfold it to
reveal a round, flour dusted pastry and put a piece of Peking Duck skin
on it, with spring onions, cucumbers and sauce to taste. The pastry is
then folded like a taco and you bite into it. I love the texture of Li
Garden’s Peking Duck. The flavors are complex and heavily infused into
the crispy, yet surprisingly chewy, Peking duck skin. Divine!

li garden prawn

Next up is a plate of very nicely done deep fried butter prawns.
There’s plenty of “butter shavings” (i.e. the fried butter batter) to
complement the large prawns. The prawns are crispy and partly peeled,
with just the right amount of crunchy shell for that extra Oomph.

li garden 3 egg

There’s also a green vegetable based dish cooked duck meat and three types of
eggs – salted eggs, century eggs and normal eggs. The normal eggs are
scattered into a nice mess and the salted eggs and century eggs are
partly whole. I enjoyed this unique presentation to a simple vegetable
dish. This is where the meat from your Peking Duck goes.

li garden cabbage

The next course comes in two dishes – the main dish and a plate
containing the cabbage wrap. The main dish is a meat based one with
chai bo and it’s meant to be heaped into the cups of cabbage wrap and
eaten like that.

li garden fish

The final dish is a medallion of fish on top of rice vermicelli
cooked with various savories. It’s served on top of a large mussel
shell. I also enjoyed this dish tremendously. The fish the good part
that has the right mix of oil for a good mouth-feel and slippery and
smooth fish. Nice!

Li Garden Chinese Restaurant is a great place for a Chinese style
dinner. I’ll love to go for the Peking Duck again, but I have an
uncomfortable feeling that I won’t be able to afford it. πŸ˜‰

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