Our first chance to go out ...

We got thru opening ceremonies and we decided it was time to go out and eat something other than the food in the compound, many people said to go out for a Peking Duck Dinner so we decided to give it a go. I did a little research and found out there was what we consider in the states a chain restaurant called "Da Dong" which specializes in Peking Duck Meals. It was suggested to go there because it follows the western tradition of cleanliness. Before we left I asked the attendants at the desk where the nearest one was, they wrote down the name and address on a special card that has English and a Chinese translation on it. The idea of the cards was anyone would be able to get directions from a local in a pinch. We were not familiar with the subway so we took a cab; cabs are very inexpensive we found out. The only problem is some cabbies don’t read very well so there is a little explaining to do after giving them the translation card and then showing them our maps.

We got to the restaurant; there was a wait so they told us to stay outside. I asked if there was a bar and they brought us inside, let us pick beer or wine from the menu and pulled out 4 stools for us to sit on. It was very interesting watching how they work. There seemed to be a group of managers, then head waiter/waitresses, servers and the cashiers. We got to watch the chefs carve the duck, they sliced the breast meat off and that was it, I don’t know what happened to the rest of the duck. There also was a big tank where they kept shell fish and another tank where there was fish.

After a little while we were seated, we got our menus and proceeded to try to pick what we wanted. We definitely wanted sliced duck so we ordered that, plus steamed crab, broccoli, white rice, and some kind of soup. As we waited they brought out some of the duck skin, I assume this is a delicacy so I tried it. Next they brought out the sliced duck breast, some tortilla like things a black sauce and some kind if onion slices. The servers then came over and made a little wrap of the duck meat, onion, and sauce. That was pretty good. As we were devouring these wraps they brought out a live crab for us to approve of for our dinner, it was a big sucker. Unfortunately they didn’t have the broccoli we were told so we didn’t get our veggies. The crab came out a little later nicely steamed and sliced up. The one thing we didn’t really care for was the ducks head, myself and the 2 other Americans wanted no part of it but or Scottish engineer Adrian gave it a go and crunched away at it. I was amazed. We really enjoyed our meal, so we decided to break the rule of no tipping and gave our servers 50 Yuan each ($7.00).

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