In preparation for a gourmet dinner for 10 that we’ll be hosting next month, serving duck l’orange, we decided for a test run today. We went to Ranch 99, a famous Asian supermarket in town and bought a duck.
Whoa, those Asians like their birds intact.
What to do with the feet and head?
Trim them off, and voilà, a duck becomes a chicken!
Now we can safely proceed and make chicken l’orange, uh, duck l’orange.
Yes, I suppose ducks do feature a lot more prominently in Asian cuisines rather than Western. And yep, whole ducks. I have wondered why this is so, from time to time, although I do not fancy duck (or any kind of meat, really). I guess it may be for the same reason Asians relish animal offals (like beef tripe?) and other body parts (like chicken feet). I know, sounds nauseating.
How did the dish turn out?
It’s cooking right as I write this. Do don’t know yet. I don’t eat much meat either, fowl when I am traveling of special occasions (turkey for Thanksgiving), but never red or processed meat.
Yay…isn’t that a good thing, after all that we’ve been reading about red meat (especially processed) and carcinogens.