Chinese Roast Duck (Vit Quay)

[Iowaboy3]

I just had a customer give me a pound of roast pork and a whole, flattened roast duck. We ate the pork immediately with the dipping sauce (wonderful) but I'm wondering what to do with the roast duck (vit quay)? Is it Chinese or Vietnamese? It has a fair amount of meat but more bones and great carmelization. How or what kind of dish should I incorporate it into or how should I serve it?

[luckyfatima]

It's probably Chinese (Cantonese style) roast duck. Who told you it is vit quay? The customer? Vit quay is just the Vietnamese way to say roast duck but means most likely in this case Chinese style BBQ duck---as in the customer picked it up from a Chinese BBQ (not home made, right?). At a lot of Chinese and Chinese-Vietnamese restaurants (meaning owned by Chinese from Vietnam) you will find the menu in Chinese, Vietnamese, and English. But the food is still Chinese---including the BBQ chicken, duck, and pig hanging in there. At these restos, you find the duck served as in other Cantonese restos: cut into parts on a plate and soused in a little bit of salty duck juice. You just eat this with rice. It can also come with fluffy little pancakes and hoisin sauce, in soups, or be used in other dishes (stir fries, noodle dishes, it adds a lot of flavor). If it is fresh and well seasoned, it doesn't need any sauce, great to gnaw on straight off the bone, skin and all, and sometimes chew the bones, too.

[Iowaboy3]

Thanks everyone. The shop it's from is a Chinese Bar-B-Que with duck & roast pig hanging on hooks. "Vit Quay" is on the menu board there. They have flattened and round (whole) roast duck there. What's the difference?

[fourunder]

The flattened duck may be tea smoked.....

[huiray]

Did the flattened duck look like these in the first picture here - http://www.gourmetgarden.com.my/2010/10/17/pei-pa-duck-in-lunas-kedah/ or like these on the left side of the fifth picture here - http://eatlah.blogspot.com/2011/05/restoran-woo-ng-kee-taman-ehsan-kepong.html ?

If so it was a "pei pa ngap" (琵琶鸭). "Pei pa" = a kind of Chinese lute; "ngap" = duck. Such ducks are crispier and more caramelized all around, as you noted, with tasty bones for sucking on. Chop it up like you would a whole round (unflattened) duck and eat with rice or other stuff like luckyfatima or seamunky suggests.

However, as luckyfatima says, "vịt quay" just means "roast duck" in Vietnamese and seems to be applied generally to whole round roast ducks rather than flattened ducks. See: http://www.danangcuisine.com/2011/07/thit-vit-duck.html ; http://vietbao.vn/The-gioi-giai-tri/Thuong-thuc-vit-quay-Bac-Kinh/50797296/416/ for example. Here's a "Vietnamese" recipe with "eating suggestions": http://www.vietnamese-recipes.com/vie... . (As luckyfatima also says, it would ultimately be of Chinese derivation)

[Iowaboy3]

The duck I had was like the Pei Pa Duck. Less meaty, more cooked down and carmely. I wound up eating it along side some noodles I cooked up and tossed with chui chow (?) sauce and peanut oil + some bean sprouts. It was very good. Thanks for the feedback all.

[seamunky]

It's not uncommon to enjoy the duck with some fresh baguettes, some Maggi seasoning sauce with sliced chilies to dip the meat, and some cucumber spears. Best eaten with your hands...preferably while sitting on the floor in a circle around the duck with your friends/family but that's not necessary.

Otherwise, you can enjoy it with steamed buns, thin egg noodles, or banh hoi as suggested by jaykayen. Either way, I would let the roast duck speak for itself alongside your starch of choice and a few condiments (hoisin, scallions, Maggi, chili).

If you decide to re-heat your duck in the oven, prepare a bed of thin egg noodles briefly sauteed in garlic oil and let the duck drip onto the noodles as it's heating. Serve the duck on the bed of noodles. Garnish with scallions sliced on a bias. Enjoy.

[jaykayen]

"Vit quay" is Vietnamese. I especially like it with these very thin noodles called banh hoi, but you can eat it any which way you like, such as with rice or noodles with fresh herbs/ lettuce.