Chinese Dishes Served with Pancakes
Peking Duck
Peking Duck, or Peking Roast Duck is a famous duck dish from Beijing that has been prepared since the Yuan Dynasty, and is now considered one of China's national foods. Ducks are bred specially for the dish.
The dish is prized for the thin, crispy skin, with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat, sliced in front of the diners by the cook. The meat is often eaten with pancakes, spring onions, and hoisin sauce or sweet noodle sauce.
Peking Duck
Simplified Peking Duck
Crispy Aromatic Duck
Crispy aromatic duck is a variant of Peking duck that originated from the Chinese community in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 20th century, served by most Chinese restaurants as a signature dish on the menu.
To prepare crispy aromatic duck, the duck is first rubbed inside and out with a mixture of spices including five spice powder and Sichuan peppercorns. After marinating and then left overnight to dry, the duck is placed into a wok and steamed for two hours, with the fat constantly poured off the duck. Afterwards, the duck is cut into quarters and dusted with corn flour and deep fried for 8–15 minutes.
The cooked duck is drained on kitchen paper and taken to the diners' table, where the meat is shredded off. The meat is served with pancakes, finely chopped cucumber and spring onions and hoisin sauce. The meat has less fat, but is drier and crispier compared to that of Peking Duck.
Mu Shu Pork
This famous dish is from northern China, possibly originally from Shandong, where rice is seldom used; instead, flour-based noodles, steamed buns, and pancakes are served. The thin pancakes, called Mandarin pancakes, are the same as those featured in Peking Duck.
Indeed, Mu Shu Pork is known in China as the poor man's Peking Duck, in part because very little meat is required, and in part because while the duck takes at least a day to make, the pork filling for Mu Shu is ready in minutes. It is believed to have first appeared on the menus of Chinese restaurants in the United States in the late 1960s.
