"Do you have anything new to say about Thanksgiving dinner?" I asked Nancy Leson.
"No, I don't," she admitted. Me neither, so I suggested we talk turkey about our favorite waterfowl instead.
My favorite duck dishes are all Chinese. I love the roast duck at Tacoma's Tho Tuong BBQ on 38th Street. And, as you can see from the picture above, the 5-spice pressed duck at Bellevue's Peony would be hard to resist.
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One of my all time favorites is the chop suey joint standby Wor Shu Opp, a steamed, boned, pressed and deep fried version served over iceberg lettuce and topped with a brown sauce and slivered almond. I recently made my own version using chicken thighs instead of duck. After marinating in soy, rice wine, 5-spice and ginger for a few hours, the finished product was indistinguishable from duck. At least to my taste.
Nancy's nuts about duck confit, a method of preserving duck thighs, drumsticks and sometimes wings by salting, cooking and then encasing them in the duck's own rendered fat. Next, you bake the whole works in a slow oven until the meat is easily pulled from the bone. After that, you can cool it and keep in the fridge. Nance says canned confit will keep for years.
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Much as I love duck, I've never had confit. Leson insists I try it. "Get your hands on some confit-ified duck, sit there by yourself with a knife and fork when no one's looking and just have at it."
I told her, "If no one's looking I'm not bothering with a knife and fork."
Full disclosure: Nance and I are still both having turkey for TG.
"Singing songs... is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck. And I love roast duck."– Billie Holiday