What it is
Sliced duck (鴨肉切盤) is a plate of cooked duck, chopped to order at shops that specialise in the bird. It comes plain-boiled or smoked. The same shops often sell duck rice, duck soup with glass noodles and mixed plates of duck offal such as heart, liver, gizzard and intestine.
How it is made
Shops cook whole ducks fresh each day. Zhu-Ji in Tainan uses freshly killed four-month-old ducks from Neipu in Pingtung County, supplied daily, and offers them plain or smoked. Chopping is heavy work. At Ya Rou Zhen in Kaohsiung it has a station of its own, with a row of whole ducks waiting behind the cutter.
How to eat it
Order a plate to share alongside duck rice and a bowl of soup. Queues build at mealtimes at the well-known shops, and the smoked duck at Zhu-Ji tends to sell out by lunchtime, so it pays to arrive early.
Around Taiwan
- Tainan
- Zhu-Ji Dong Tsai Ya (竹記冬菜鴨) has sold sliced duck since 1942 and is now run by the third generation. Its other draw is duck soup with preserved winter vegetable (冬菜) and glass noodles, light rather than rich.
- Kaohsiung
- Ya Rou Zhen (鴨肉珍) stands by the entrance to the International Market in Yancheng. You queue and order at the front, then sit in the arcade. Its duck rice comes with minced pork sauce as well as duck.
- North
- Yilan is known for ya shang (鴨賞), duck that is salted, dried and then smoked over sugarcane, which seeps sweetness into the meat. It began as a way to keep duck before refrigeration. It is usually sliced and eaten as it is.
- Central
- Beigang in Yunlin is especially known for duck rice. The usual method is to steam the duck, shred it over rice and dress it with duck fat mixed with fried shallots and sesame oil, much like Chiayi's turkey rice with duck in place of turkey.
