Crisp and to the point

Vice-general manager Ma Jizhen has worked there since he graduated from culinary school in 1988, and has grown up with the time-honored restaurant.

"When the restaurant first opened around 60 years ago, three groups of chefs from Shanxi, Shandong and Jiangsu provinces gathered together," says Ma. "So our dishes are based on Shanxi cooking, with a hint of Huaiyang and Shandong cuisines."

Crispy duck is the signature dish. It requires just as much skill to make as the ever-popular Peking duck. All the duck dishes on the menu come from the Jinxing duck outlet, the same trusted supplier that provides their Peking roast duck.

"We use ducks that weigh around 2.5 kilograms after they are cleaned, which is larger than the standard roast duck," says Ma.

According to Ma, their crispy duck is made in a completely different way. They cut the duck's spine from neck to tail, clean it and marinate it in traditional Chinese herbs to add flavor for between four and eight hours.

"Then we steam the stuffed duck to get all the fat out from under the skin, before we empty the insides and fry the duck to make the skin and bones crispy," says Ma.

"Frying is the key process to making the dish. The duck has to be fried in oil at three different temperatures, for an exact amount of time.

"First of all, the duck is fried in hot oil. The temperature of the oil is then lowered and the duck is fried again to ensure that the bones and the meat are completely cooked," says Ma. "Lastly, the temperature of the oil is raised again and the duck is fried a third time to make the skin crispy."

It takes chefs an average of three years of practice to perfect.