Yiliang Roast Duck
宜良烤鴨
During the period of Emperor Guangxu, the closing years of the Qing Dynasty, a Yunnanese named Xu Shi from Yiliang goes to Beijing sitting for the imperial examinations in the hope of winning an official rank. He is companied by an attendant named Liu Wen who is all eyes and all ears to learn cookery from a Beijing Roast Duck Restaurant, most notably for the art of preparing Peking duck. Later, when they return to the hometown Gouzhen of Yiliang, Xu Shi finally wins a seventh rank, the same as the post of county magistrate while Liu Wen opens a restaurant called Zhibin Garden at the local train station. But restaurateur Liu is not content to merely reproduce the Beijing Duck of the capital; he wants to localize it and make it unique to the region. Liu uses a mud oven instead of a brick oven, honey instead of malt syrup for the glaze, and most distinctively pine branches and needles instead of the Gaoliang hardwood normally used for Peking duck. The end result is now called Yiliang Duck and has become a Yunnanese speciality. Half a century rolls by, when mentioning Liu Wen’s roast duck, many people will still be eaten outflow to drool.
清光緒年間宜良人許實進京趕考,帶了個隨從陪侍叫劉文。許實備考應試,劉文則常去一家烤鴨店眼觀鼻嗅耳聞地偷學技藝;許實考取功名得了個七品官,劉文學得了技藝回鄉(xiāng),在狗街火車站開了個烤鴨店名為“質彬園”,劉文因地制宜,他改用土坯火爐,用松毛結暗火烘烤,北京用麥芽糖水做涂料上色,北京烤鴨用高粱稈做撐筒,他改用蘆葦,做出了狗街烤鴨的特點. 半個世紀過去了,吃過的人回憶起劉文的烤鴨,仍然食欲大動,終涎欲滴,贊不絕口。