Chinatown Duck Open

Ping Tom Park

It's a beautiful park, and pretty easy to get to from the east end of the mall.

Tonight, Pigmon and I did a little duck scouting mission in Chinatown. We think that for the duck outing, we will (un)focus on four types of duck: tea-smoked, BBQ, roast/crispy, and misc. Initially we were thinking just tea-smoked and BBQ, but why limit ourselves, no? We will forgo the Peking Duck, as it deserves it’s own event as well as some deep pockets. And we won’t order any duck that you have to eat with a fork.

Here are some of the options that we have in no particular order:

Spring World
2109 S China Pl
*Tea Smoked Duck

Royal Dragon
2225 S. Wentworth
*Cantonese Style Roast Duck

Emporor’s Choice
2238 S. Wentworth
*Five Spice Crispy Duck w/ Bone
*Cantonese Roast Duck w/ Bone

Little Three Happiness
209 W. Cermak
*Cold Roast Duck

Moon Palace
216 W. Cermak
*Salted Duck
*Crispy Duck (Half)

Sky Food
228 W. Cermak
*Tea Smoked Duck
*Crispy Duck -

Mandarin Kitchen
2143 S. Archer
*Crispy Duck
*Cold Roast Duck
*Salty Duck

Wing Chan Bar-B-Q
2157 S China Place Wing Chan Bar-B-Q (Chinatown Mall)
*BBQ Duck

Lao Sze Chuan (Chinatown Mall)
2172 S. Archer
*Crispy Duck
*Tea Smoked Duck

Lee Wing Wah
2147 S. China Place (Chinatown Mall)
*Pressed Duck

BBQ King House
2148 S. Archer (Chinatown Mall)
*BBQ Duck - (Whole)
*House Special Pi-Pa Duck (Whole)
*Soya Duck (Whole)

These are just options, depending on how many people end up coming we can expand or compress the list. If anyone has any thoughts on any of the above, or know of any that we missed that should be included, let us know.

So far these are the folks that have expressed interest (if you are not able to make it drop me a pm):

EatChicago
Petit Pois
stevez aka Duck’s Bitch
sazerac
Seth Zurer
Cathy2?
TonyC
Food Nut
JimInLoganSquare
MrsJimInLoganSquare
PIGMON
trixie-pea

Anyone else? We are meeting at Ping Tom Park (300 W. 19th St) located near Chinatown Mall. Here's a map.
We'll start gathering for Sangria Happy Hour at 6pm. The weather is supposed to be ideal.

trixie-pea

The duck open was a lot of fun for a lot of different reasons.

1.The people of course, always make the event. A nice mix last night of duck enthusiasts, newbies, and freaks (pdaane was there). We did miss stevez, though. (And you call yourself D'sB) And last minute guests ReneG and Evan B. Druce were welcome additions to the party.

2.The weather. Perfection.

3.The park. Ping Tom Park is indeed an urban wonder. Tucked just behind Chinatown Square, it is a strange mix of industry, transportation and preserve. It also happened to be a nice place to dine. There are picnic tables, garbage cans and bathrooms all located in the playground area. I don’t think we made too much of a spectacle, because the families strolling through the park barely gave us a second look.

4.The food and drink. We ended up going to 4 places for duck: Lao Sze Chuan, Phoenix, BBQ King, and Sky. Spring World was closed, and despite friendly urging from sazerac, they just wouldn’t tea smoke any duck for us. (The Spring World duck was the one that spurred the duck event in the first place.) We also arrived at Wing Chan just a little too late, as they close at 7pm. To make up for lost duck, we ordered some roast pork, and chicken livers from BBQ King, Tony’s 3-chile chicken from LSC, and potstickers (that turned out to be something else) and rice from Pheonix. Sazerac came prepared with a cheese course, complete with cheese board and knife. Nice. FoodNut and very-soon-to-be Mr. Food Nut brought a pitcher of potent Sangria (which TonyC noted goes surprisingly well with duck), and pdaane brought an amazing sampling from his pluot-of-the-month club. PIGMON and I also brought some sangria as well as a bit of dessert in the form of macadamia nut macaroons.

As for the ducks, I wouldn’t say there was one that leapt out of the crowd and said, I’m so good, I’m the best. I think, my favorite overall, was the LSC duck II. We asked for a whole, tea-smoked duck, and were given two containers of distinctly different tasting meat. Someone thought the first container tasted like pulled pork, and I think that was a rather accurate description, although it was most certainly duck. The second container, however, had a deeper more interesting flavor. The skin was more flavorful, and the meat wasn’t so stringy.

I thought the Sky Food tea-smoked duck was good and bad at the same time. No one but ReneG and Cathy2 had ever been to Sky, and so this was a somewhat blind choice. The tea-smoked flavor was quite good, but the duck quality seemed to be a little lower than the others.

Truth be told, I don’t really remember the Phoenix roast BBQ duck. Standard, nondescript. Which is kind of the same feeling I had about BBQ King. It was good, because it was duck and it was Chinese BBQ, but again nothing mind blowing. The BBQ chicken livers were beautiful, lacquered almost. Someone thought they looked like skewered yakitori. They tasted great over rice with some dregs from the chili oil. I did enjoy eating the pork rinds off the BBQ pork, although the meat itself was just ok. Because we didn’t get a chance to try Spring World or Wing Chan, we will definitely do a similar event sometime in the future.

5.The value. At $9 a person, we were all able to stuff ourselves full of more than a bit of everything.


Thanks to all who came! (will be posting pictures later...)

trixie-pea

It sounds like a splendid time was had by all (except for the ducks, of course). I'm really sorry I had to miss it. I can't wait to see some pictures. Especially intriguing is TP's description of the BBQ livers.

As a result of this thread, PIGMON and trixie-pea organized an LTH outing to taste a lot of different ducks in Chinatown. Last night a good group met in Chinatown's Ping Tom Park. After a few glasses of sangria provided by PIGMON, trixie-pea, and Food Nut, and after tasting sazerac's successful cheese storage experiment, we split up into groups to hit five different restaurants for takeout. We were slightly disappointed that both Spring World and Wing Chan were not open, but we soldiered on.

My assignment was BBQ King. I ordered a whole BBQ duck, a pound of crispy BBQ pig (they were out of baby pig), and a pound of BBQ chicken livers (which I had never had from a Chinese restaurant). BBQ King is an attractive place with a lot to look at while waiting in line:



When we all met back at the park, we laid out our haul for photo-ops before eating. BBQ King's food, clockwise from top-right: chicken livers, pig, half duck, the other half.



I'd rate their their duck as serviceable, about what I'd expect from your average BBQ joint. The skin wasn't as crisp as I'd like and the flavor of the meat was just ok. Nothing really to speak of. Their pig was worse, completely insipid, tasteless, empty calories. The livers on the other hand were fantastic, with a mahogany, chewy exterior. They had just enough pleasant organ flavor to satisfy.

Here's a closeup of the liver:



Another group picked up two halves of tea-smoked duck from Lao Sze Chuan. The first half was surprisingly nothing to speak of, but the second half was a whole new experience. Truly tender, succulent, flavorful meat. I'm not sure what happened with the first half, but this second half was really the one dish from the evening that I could have eaten completely by myself. Here's the pic:



We also had a crispy duck from Phoenix which I considered well above average. A high-quality bird with nice seasoning and good crispy skin. I also liked the deep-fried shu mai. Phoenix pic:



Sky Food wins the award for most flavorful duck. Their tea-smoked duck had a serious smoky flavor that flirted with bitterness. It was quite good, very discernible, but not something I'd like to eat a lot of. Sky's duck:



Trixie-pea was kind enough to bake for us. She whipped up a fantastic batch of sweet, sticky, coconut-macadamia macaroons. These, combined with pluots from pdaane's accidental fruit-of-the-month-club were a perfect dessert.



As the sun set on Ping Tom Park, the sangria, and the 18th St. bridge, we called it a night:



Another fantastic LTHForum event in the books. Great food, excellent company, perfect weather. Who could ask for more?

Special thanks to our organizers PIGMON and trixie-pea for all their hard work in making this such a smooth and fun night. Also thanks to Food Nut, sazerac, and pdaane for bringing sangria, cheese, and pluots for all of our enjoyment.

Best,
Michael

BBQ King House
2148 S. Archer Ave. (Chinatown Mall)
312-326-1219

also takeout only at
2306 S. Wentworth Ave.
312-225-2652

Lao Sze Chuan
2172 S. Archer Ave. (Chinatown Mall)
312-326-5040

Phoenix
2131 S. Archer Ave.
312-328-0848

Sky Food
228 W Cermak Rd
(312) 842-7818

I have to agree on the Phoenix assessment, Michael. Even though we ordered pot stickers and received shu mai from Phoenix, the combo shrimp and pork(?) was tasty and they held up well via carry out. They tasted freshly prepared. I stopped ordering shu mai some time ago when I kept getting the frozen variety. No, thanks.

Phoenix's duck was the first I tried and perhaps because I picked up there, I wanted it first. I found it superior to the others, best overall flavor, skin, appearance. Though, by, the end, I had trouble distinguishing the differences due, perhaps, to a fatigued palate, or too much Sangria(Mr. Food Nut's assessment).

Mr. Food Nut loved the pork, though I doubt he'll post on it since he's not quite the hound I claim to be. He loves pork in any form, so, I wasn't surprised. I thought it was too salty and oh- so- cold.

Of all the ducks, the tea smoked hit me as mushy in texture...not too appetizing to be honest.

Thanks for the Sangria, cheese, dessert, pluots, conversation and good wishes everyone!

BTW, the port-o-johns were locked, so don't count on the facilities at the park.

The duck outing made for a great evening, thanks to Trixie-pea and Pigmon for putting it together and everyone who was there. It was very interesting to try duck from different places all at once.

We ordered the ducks and other assortments form Ping Tom Park and then set out and split up to round them up.
We got tea-smoked duck from three places: LSC, Sky, and
Sichuan Tea Smoked Duck (TSD) requires marination and drying, followed by smoking, then steaming and finally a quick deep frying. I'm guessing from how quickly the orders were filled that only the last step remains to be done in the restaurants. I'm not sure how much the smokiness is affected (diminished) by holding, but the difference between the two half-ducks in taste was for me the most remarkable point. There wasn't (to me) any discernible visual difference (Michael/EC's picture shows the first totally passable TSD, the better one is in the box directly below it*). What bothers me now is how to order the second half-duck when at LSC. It was to me the best duck of the evening. Tender flavorful meat, moist but without any globs of fat, with a sweetish smoky accent, surrounded by crisp skin. It came with a five-spiceish flavored slightly thickened soy sauce.
I didn't really find large globs of fat in any of the evenings ducks. The Sky TSD was very good, crisp skin with soft very smoky meat, just slightly fattier than the LSC and BBQ King ducks. Based on that I'm curious to try other dishes there. However, After tasting the LSC TSD-II, the over-smokiness of the Sky TSD was apparent. For that it was great to have all our ducks lined up and tasted in a head to head comparison**.



Non TSD:
Neither the duck nor the pork from BBQ King was something I'd venture out for again. The livers were a different matter. Multi-layer BBQ glazed sweet chewy things. I could eat a lot of those (and I did).
The Phoenix crispy duck was decent - but it just what it was called, not too much more. It came with some plain soy sauce.

Thanks everyone!

Other notes:
Trixie-pea's chili oil with it's ginger and bean 'gunk' over some steamed rice was the perfect accompaniment to and foil between the ducks.
The sangrias and their fruit component worked great for me with the duck.

Thanks to pdaane I tasted a pluot - though since I'm told they come in multiple flavors (eighteen flavors over the months), I'm not sure I know what a pluot tastes like.

Interesting conversations about Big Babies.


*eatchicago remarked that next time that it didn't not make sense to get even four orders of the same item from the same place.
In typing this I am suddenly wondering if the half-ducks from LSC were in fact both TSDs. One, i.e. duck-II, clearly was. Was the 'first' the chef's special crispy duck instead (#574)? This is marinated (should be different from TSD), dried, steamed and fried. TSD is #575 and I think the ducks were phoned in by the number and only one type/number (TSD) was ordered (but is that what we got?).

**For the curious: both head halves were from BBQ King.
For the damn curious: in the cavity on the unpictured side of the head-half there was a teeny bit of 'organ' meat. Slightly soft, mostly tasteless.