IN search of good cheap Peking duck???

[dyippie]

Any one know of any specials, from san gabriel valley, to san fernando valley, to chinatown, to west los angeles?

[FrankJR08]

best Chinese food in south orange county
Peking Dragon Restaurant
[phone] pekingdragonrestaurant.com
34171 Pacific Coast Hwy, Dana Point, CA 92629

[hkwanker]

All this talk about peking duck is making me crave it. I will definitely try LDG!!
Thanks all

[Mr Grub]

Lu Din Gee is prob best available. Lake Spring Shanghai (now under new ownership with the much respected cook from a few years ago back in the kitchen) serves a lovely bird for about $25 -- must be pre-ordered. [For Lake Springers everywhere, the Grubber is happy to report that the pork pump rocks once again.]

[modernist]

anybody remember when lu din gee used to be J.Z.Y cafe?

im hoping that with the influx of mainlanders coming to town we'll get another good peking duck place back...

and hopefully a uyghur restaurant! flushing new york has a couple!!! damn!!!

[Jerome]

so uzbekistan doesn't cut it for you, or the iranian places on westwood? or china islamic just for the bread?

there is a new afghan place in town. i don't remember the name... but the polo should be similar.

[modernist]

actually uzbekistan isn't bad... its one of the really under appreciated spots in LA. the iranian spots not at all...

sometimes you want a roast lambs head, with la mian, and a few yang rou chuar grilled outside with some nan bing... i saw the thing for the new afghan place..

http://la.eater.com/archives/2008/03/...

will have to check it out....

[Jerome]

since it's all known by mandarin names - i wonder how much of the "uyghur" food in beijing is really what they eat in urumqi and how much is uyghur food catering to chinese palates who are just interested.
any ideas?

[modernist]

i'm sure it is.... i'll let you know when i go to xinjiang.

[Das Ubergeek]

Does Uzbekistan serve the noodles, though? I mean, you can get "yang rou chuan" at any Middle Eastern restaurant -- 羊肉串 just means "lamb meat kabob", where the "kabob" is the easiest food character in the entire Chinese syllabary to recognise. :)

[modernist]

they do have the noodles but they are only so so. and quite pricey too if i remember correctly...
everyone has kebabs but its not the same...

[Jerome]

homestyle on valley had the yang rou chuanr with lots and lots of cumin. i think 101 noodle express had it too.

[modernist]

good call...

i think i also miss the process of waiting for them to make it in front of you and the amazing bing coming straight out of the tandoor things. then sticking the stick into a christmas tree of skewers, and dodging flying beer bottle caps...

[Mr Taster]

:) I'd counter that by saying the characters for numbers 1, 2, 3 are the easiest.

Mr Taster

[Das Ubergeek]

True, but they are only tangentially food-related... And in any case, "cumin" is not an easy character.

(N.B.: I have a BlackBerry and Opera Mini. NOW I NEVER HAVE TO EAT BADLY ON THE GO! Muahahahahaha!!)

[jotfoodie]

Hands down, Lu Ding Gee has the best Peking Duck in town. One thing to remember, Peking Duck are served 2 different styles as far as the 'wrapper' and green onions are concerned. Cantonese style usually served them with steamed bun and only the white tip potion of the green onions (more pungent). The other style (Mainland China ??) is served in pancake style (like a very thin tortilla) and julienned green onions. Personally, I like the pancake style as it holds the skin and sliver of duck meat better, but I also prefer my green onions to be more pungent. Lu Ding Gee also serve other interesting dishes, but people go there mainly for the duck. It is not cheap, 2 eats ($7 ?? more) (choice of stir fry bean sprouts & duck meat or duck soup), and choice of 3 (another $7) eats including the 2 I mentioned. I believe the reason LDG is popular is due to how they handle the skin of the duck, they practically scrape off the duck fat behind the skin, and of course the flavor is addictive. Have fun.

[chowmominLA]

I love the Peking duck at Lu Din Gee, but I love the Peking duck at Elite in Monterey Park just as much. They serve it "two ways", where they serve the skin with the buns, green onion, shrimp chips and plum sauce, and they take the meat, mince it and serve it with lettuce leaves. About the same price as Lu Din Gee ($32), so neither are "cheap".

Elite is on Atlantic, between the 10 and the 60, in Monterey Park. About four blocks south of Garvey.

[Jerome]

at quanjude in beijing and in rosemead, they served the duck with the hebing/ pancakes and also with a type of baked hollow flaky bun called kongxin bing. they never served hoisin sauce - but something closer to tianmianjiang, a sweet pasty sauce made of i think beans and fermented wheat dough.

[emceenuggets]

Mission 261 serves a decent Cantonese peking duck, buns and all. As I remember, it's 14 dollars. While not as heavenly as Elite's, I found Mission 261's peking duck to be pretty good. And have ordered it multiple times when grabbing dim sum there.... Haven't been to Mission 261 since August... Been on kind of an Elite kick for Cantonese lately....

[LMelba]

Mako in BH serves a delish Peking duck for $26, includes pancakes and fixings.

[olivexjina]

BEST deal in town hands down. peking duck at full house in arcadia next to the 99 ranch market. a WHOLE peking duck with all the fixings (buns not the wraps) for 9.99!!! the skin is crispy and very meaty. a whole lot better than some of the places I've had it in chinatown where Ive paid about $13-14 for just half the duck.

[Clinton]

That is a deal! You can't even buy a plain whole roast hanging duck anymore for less than $13. I think I paid $15 at Sam Woo's just a little while ago? I can remember buying a whole roast duck at United Poultry in LA Chinatown for $3.95. That was a very long long time ago!

[debra]

I have an note from a VERY old CH post (2004) about Sea Empress in Gardena on my to-do list: "...whole Peking Duck (for a ridiculous 12 bucks). Crispy, slightly sweet skin chunks served w/rice puffs..."

Anyone have any more recent info?

[monku]

$12 might have been for half a Peking Duck. $28.50 now for a whole duck.

current Sea Empress menu
http://losangeles.menupages.com/resta...

[Clinton]

Sounds about right. Don't forget to ask for the leftover meat after they carve the skin off. Sometimes they'll keep it or throw it away.

[slacker]

Ocean Seafood in Chinatown serves it. They bring the whole duck table side and carve and plate it for you, which was pretty interesting. I didn't order it for our table, but our friends at the next table got it and it looked very good. I don't recall the price, but am pretty sure it's less expensive than at Lu Din Gee.
I'm sure a number of places serve it, it's just not something I normally look for on the menu.
This was a very recent dinner at Ocean, and I had not had dinner there in years and years, and was very pleasantly surprised by the menu. They had some very Cantonese dishes that aren't on a lot of Cantonese restaurant menus. Just about everything we had was very good, except the sizzling platter duck, which was too greasy and a bit mushy. I did get for our table the bamboo fungus with pea leaves, oh that was so good.

[ns1]

I had the peking duck there and thought it was good, but not amazing. Their walnut shrimp is pretty good though, albeit a little heavy on the mayo for my tastes.

[slacker]

Hmm, I don't know that I've had a specifically "amazing" peking duck. I like the dish a lot, but haven't noticed huge differences from restaurant to restaurant. Maybe I don't eat it enough. I've had it at Lu Din Gee a couple of times. Maybe the best one was probably the one I had in China, in Peking/Beijing.
Walnut shrimp is a dish I never voluntarily order, it's always too heavy on the mayo, everywhere, to me. :o

[monku]

Sam Woo BBQ in Monterey Park calls their duck Peking Duck ($11.95 take out). But, I have a feeling that what you're looking for is the duck skin served with the steamed buns and that isn't what they serve. Their duck is very good and if you look around the dining room everyone orders it and if you look into the kitchen you'll see they have dozens hanging to dry before cooking.

On the subject of the Peking Duck served with the skin of the duck and steamed buns. My experience is that most restaurants that serve what they call Peking Duck is duck skin from a roast duck. Lu Din Gee is probably one of the few authentic Peking Duck places.

[wilafur]

i love to buy a whole roast duck from a deli like sam woo, etc. and a few man-tou's and grub down. mmm!

[yellow fever]

By far and away, the best most authentic peking duck in LA is Lu Din Gee on Valley Blvd in Alhambra. It's their specialty! You must call at least one hour in advance to order it! Enjoy!

[russkar]

Yellow Fever, your right about LU DIN GEE being the best Peking Duck in So Cal. It' actually located in Rosemead (I think?).
We were there last night with a group of people and everything was amazing.

[carter]

Russ - other than the duck, what did you have, and do you remember the prices of any of the food?
Here is the address info:
Lu-Din-Gee Cafe
1039 E Valley Blvd Ste B102
San Gabriel, CA 91776
[phone]
Coincidentally, I had the roast duck at Sam Woo's in Van Nuys yesterday, and it was quite tasty, yet now I need to get to San Gabriel to try this place to compare.

[Servorg]

See my post above, (the first one in this thread) for their web site with menu and prices.

[debra]

I had the Peking Duck at LDG a little under a year ago, and it was amazing. Juicy Meat, Crispy Skin. We didn't order anything else off the menu, but we did pay extra to get the Duck, three ways -- Sliced meat and skin, in a stir fry with sprouts, and bone soup. It was about $7 more per "way". I would recommend the stir fry, very simple, but fresh and tasty -- bits of duck meat, with very fresh bean sprouts -- a really nice accompanyment. I'd pass on the milky duck bone soup. Unless we got a bad batch, it was completely tasteless. Not just regarding depth of flavor, but zero taste, like sipping hot milky water, which we thought was weird, considering how fantastic the duck was. We probably should have said something, but we had so much food (between just two of us), we just left the soup alone.

[Mr Taster]

Just for reference, we had a spectacular roast duck in Aug 2006 at the famous Quanjude restaurant in Beijing and they also served the bland milky bone-water duck soup which had no flavor. So it seems that Lu Din Gee has got it right.

Incidentally, the thing that far and above made Quanjude stand out heads and tails above all the other Beijing ducks we've had (both in Beijing and at LDG) is the depth of smoky richness that pervaded every layer of the skin and meat. Even at other famous Beijing duck restaurants Luqin and Made in China it just couldn't compare. Prices for whole duck ranged from about $16 - $30 with Quanjude landing at about $20.

Mr Taster

[ipsedixit]

I think part of the difference is due to the different ducks used in China and the U.S., as well as the heatlh department regs that prevent most restuarants from preparing the ducks the traditional way, i.e. sugar glazing and air dried for 24 hours.

[PeterL]

I thought there is a special legislative exemption for roast ducks (probably including Peking ducks) from this health dept. rule in Calif.

[apfb]

PeterL is right. There's a special exemption in the CA state health code to allow the traditional preparation of Peking duck.

[Jerome]

taster - did you have it at the old Quanjude in rosemead? curious as to how it compares...

[Mr Taster]

Sadly no, by the the time I became aware and interested in such things, the Rosemead Quanjude had already shuttered its doors.

Mr Taster

[apfb]

Ever since the LA branch of Quanjude closed, LDG is the only placd which has traditional Peking duck. Unfortunately LDG's version is so-so-- I don't think that the skin is quite crispy enough, compared to Quanjude (either the LA or the Chinese branches). I'll guess that they may not stretch or dry out the skin sufficiently to achieve the crispy, crackling skin that Peking duck should have.

If anyone knows of where there is authentic Peking duck, please post.

Incidentally, the Cantonese deli's roast duck is nowhere near Peking duck. A proper Peking duck requires 48-72 hr prep, a large portion of the time spent air drying the duck skin to obtain the crispy crackle.

[ns1]

What's the going rate for peking duck at lu din gee? The wikipedia entry for peking duck got me hungry...

[Servorg]

http://www.pearlcatering.com/ j

[banquisha]

Isn't Lu Din Gee the chinese spicy hot pot place? I've never seen anyone eat duck there... do I have two different places confused?

[Servorg]

They have always been noted on the board for their Peking duck, but as you can see from their menu they do have hot pot too. Their menu looks pretty comprehensive and certainly sounds / reads delicious(ly) to me.

[slacker]

Sounds like you're confusing Lu Din Gee with another place. LDG is known for their peking duck, plus they've got some pretty creative dishes. Hotpots can be found on any Chinese menu, their focus is not hotpot.

[wilafur]

you're thinking of lu gi.

[wilafur]

$30 on the low end and a bit over $40 on the high end.

[ns1]

thanks!

oops, didn't realize the pearl catering link was for lu din gee as well. thanks to both.

[Hughlipton]

Try BBQ Unlivited on Sherman Way between Fulton and Coldwater. Nothing is ever cheap but can be inexpensive. I thin it is somewhere in the 12 to 13 dollar price range. Thier roast pig is wonderful also. The one in the valley has always seemed to get better reviews than the one they have in Los angeles. I've only tried the one in the Valley so i cannot compare.

[Clinton]

The LA Times rated Lucky Deli in LA Chinatown on Broadway #1 for roast duck. The going price for duck averages around $13 - 15 depending on the location.

[raytamsgv]

Does Lucky Deli have Peking duck or Cantonese roast duck?

[Clinton]

I believe roast duck only. I don't know if they have plum duck like the old United Poultry next door. Peking duck requires special preparation before serving to obtain the crispy skin. That's why most restaurants will request that you let them know before you order.

[Servorg]

A good cheap Peking duck is a probably a contradiction in terms: http://www.pearlcatering.com/ j