How to eat Peking duck pancakes, according to a star chef

Everyone knows how to eat Peking duck pancakes, right? Thing is, maybe not.

Perhaps you’ve been in a Cantonese restaurant and watched all your mates tackle it a different way.

One uses the hoisin as a dipping sauce. Another accidentally picks up half the pancakes. Another asks what the leek is, and then what the heck leek is. And another skips the pancakes entirely, absentmindedly smashing half the duck.

“I definitely see people eating it the wrong way,” says Louis Tikaram, head chef and partner at Cantonese restaurant Stanley, at Howard Smith Wharves.

“Because I see almost every plate as it’s coming back to the kitchen.

“Sometimes the pancakes are completely untouched. Sometimes the hoisin is completely untouched. Sometimes it’s the cucumbers and the leeks.

“I’ll look out into the dining room and see people doing it every which way.”

Tikaram doesn’t mind – he’s a long way removed from your dogmatic, old-school chef – but he does care. He wants to maximise people’s enjoyment of the dish, given it takes five days to prepare.

On the first day, the Stanley chefs will trim the wings, neck and excess fat from the duck, before placing it in a brine that includes plenty of five spice and Chinese rose wine.

After 24 hours the protein is removed from the brine, blanched in boiling water to open its pores, and then massaged in a red wine vinegar glaze.

Then it’s hung in the cool room for four days before being ready for service.

“It’s huge commitment that takes a lot of labour,” Tikaram says. “But the fact people really appreciate it when they come in and eat it makes it all worthwhile, for sure.”

So how should you eat Peking duck pancakes? Tikaram has thoughts.

Dishing out the pancakes

When Peking duck lands on the table there should be at least five components: the sliced duck, julienned cucumber, julienned leek, a side of hoisin sauce, and the steamed pancakes.

Start by dishing out the pancakes. If you’re all friends here, feel free to use your fingers, but on a tight half-duck order one person can be deputised to serve the pancakes before everyone gets stuck in. If it’s a larger order or you want to take your time, Tikaram reckons the pro manoeuvre is using the butt of your chopsticks to grab the pancakes.

“We get Chinese diners or diners from Singapore,” he says. “They actually flip the chopsticks around and peel the pancake off with pinpoint accuracy and then put it on their plate, because then it’s not double dipping. The first time I saw that I was, like, ‘Oh my god, that’s serious.’

“A Singapore family told me this is how they do it at the family dinner. That’s the courteous way of peeling pancakes.”

How many pancakes you use per individual serving depends on the restaurant or chef. Two is common but at Stanley Tikaram uses one.

“I think of the pancake as just a vessel – it’s the duck that’s the star,” he says. “Our pancakes are made for us to our specs, and then we finish them off in the restaurant.

“Some people like thick pancakes, some people like thin pancakes. I like the ones we use. They’re thin and they’re kind of stretchy. I love that texture and mouthfeel, almost like mochi or a stretchy Naples pizza dough.”

Hoisin how-to

Next up is the hoisin. You might be in the habit of using a teaspoon to run a line of sauce up the middle of the pancake, or perhaps spread it across the surface. But Tikaram prefers an old Cantonese trick of dipping a piece of duck in the hoisin and “painting” it across the pancake (maybe with an extra line of sauce added before wrapping).

“Otherwise, you’re mucking around with the teaspoon and that never really works,” he says. “Instead, dip the duck into the hoisin to paint a nice consistent layer of hoisin. That’s definitely a clutch move.”

Once you’re happy with your artistry, place the duck in the middle of the pancake (depending on where you’re eating and the size of the duck slices – and how many slices have been budgeted per wrap, of course – feel free to add a second).

Potential cucumber blunders

This is where things get interpretive.

Some Cantonese chefs will tell you the julienned cucumber – Tikaram prefers telegraph cucumbers with the seeds removed for maximum crispness – is meant to be kept separate to snack on as a palate cleanser. But at Stanley, the intention has always been to make it part of the wrap.

“I do love the cucumber and the leek inside the pancake,” Tikaram says.

“I’m big on balancing that richness of the cooking rather than palate cleansing. But I find that idea really fascinating – I’ll give it another crack next time I do it.”

If you do want it inside your pancake, parcel the cucumber with a “generous pinch” of leek (some restaurants might prefer spring onions), and then it’s time to get wrapping.

Wrap, eat, repeat

Again, how you wrap – sides first and then bottom, or side-bottom-side – is essentially up to you. But you want it to be super tight, so the juice of the ingredients stay inside the pancake as you chow down on the thing.

“I compare it to wrapping a spring roll,” he says. “You’re wrapping it nice and tight – pulling it back, folding it. And then you fold the bottom and eat from the top.”

“I guess the only other wrinkle is people who do it with no hoisin inside, but then dip it in the hoisin like a spring roll. Or maybe they double it up with the hoisin inside.

“If they’re new to Cantonese food some people might ask if it’s barbecue sauce and you think, ‘Oh god, you’re not going to like this, are you?’ But then they love it. They love the whole dish. That’s when those five days of prep absolutely pay off.”

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