Royal China - Ducks and Bananas

Seaweed
Crispy Aromatic Duck
Toffee Apple. Toffee Banana

These are three typical dishes found in the menus of all Chinese restaurants all over UK. The dishes may be anglicised, but so very yummy. My Chinese friends enjoy them just as much as the next Englishman.

For the unitiated, Seaweed is not really seaweed, rather it is some leafy greens sliced really finely, drained well of water and then deepfried till crispy and sprinkled liberally with sugar and salt. Crispy aromatic duck is a whole duck marinated in aromatics like 5-spice powder and soya sauce and then steamed before being deep fried till the skin and most of the flesh is crispy. Toffee bananas or apples are pieces of the fruit rolled in batter and yes, deep fried being double dipped, first in a sugar and oil syrup, and then, just as quickly, in ice water which instantly hardens the caramel coating. There are other tasty UK-style dishes, like Orange Beef and Lemon Chicken, but those three are my favourites. Not as favourite as Whole Scotland Crab steamed in Huatiao wine that was served at Mayflower, but that is another story.

All this time, I have resigned myself to enjoying these dishes only when I visit London. Well, no more. Remember the Royal China restaurant? After the lackluster lobster, we gave them another chance and returned a few more times for their excellent dim sum. One lunchtime, we saw the next table being served the duck. Not surprisingly really, as this restaurant is an offshoot of the successful London-based restaurant group.

The taste? Exactly like every other Crispy Aromatic Duck in London. My family is of the belief there is a central Crispy Aromatic factory somewhere in the English countryside that supplies all these ducks. The English cousin of Chicken Run. erm, Duck Run? Pictured here is the duck being shredded at dazzling speed by the waitress, using only a fork and spoon.

Then I spread some brown sauce (? plum ? hoisin) on a pancake and layered duck meat with cucumber, spring onion curls and more sauce.

Fold and eat. One can fold it neatly by tucking the sides in and rolling it like a spring roll, but my preferred method is as so, this method gives more meat with eac bite.

The toffee bananas were also equally good. Brittle sesame crusted toffee shattered reassuringly against ripe bananas. Most local restaurants that serve this dish do not get it right, they bring the candied fritters to the table and do a table dance of dipping the fritters in cold water, but the result is wet and soggy fruit. Royal China does it the proper way, i.e, they assemble everything in the kitchen. I once observed a friend making it in her home kitchen. The oily syrup has to be bubbling hot, so that when it comes into contact with the iced water, the cold "freeze-shocks" the syrup which instantly hardens into a toffeelike coating. If the syrup gets cold (like on the way from kitchen to table), the sugar melts into the fried batter so what comes into contact with the ice water is batter and not syrup; when fried batter meets water, it kind of disintegrates. Logical once you think about it, ain't it. But none of the people at Imperial Herbal or Hu Cui would listen to my advice.

London-style seaweed was unfortunately, not on the menu. But two out of three is not bad methinks.

Oh, and since it is what, only 6 weeks away from the Mid Autumn Festival, the restaurant was busy promoting mooncakes. A restaurant insider once told me that mooncakes is the best profit generator in the Chinese restaurant business. Daily operations may just about break even, but mooncakes bring in all the icing. As the economy has not been in the best of health, the restaurants start the mooncake season earlier to maximise their earnings. They let us try samples of their snow skin creations as well as the traditional baked versions. The snow skin ones were a major letdown because someone was heavy handed with the osmanthus flavouring, the reek overwhelmed the delicate fillings so much we could not make out their taste. On the other hand, the traditional baked version met husband's strict criteria with its thin and perfectly baked skin surrounding white lotus paste that was neither too smooth, too oily nor too sweet.

Comments

[bourgeois_babe]

How much was your meal at Royal China? I'm keen to try but not sure if it is exorbitant. I used to eat there quite often when I was in the UK and I loved it!

[umami]

Hi bourgeois babe, the lunch of 1/2 a duck, 1 bowl of soup, 1 portion of Vietnamese spring roll, 1 basket of char siew bao, 1 portion of special cheong fun and 1 portion of toffee apples came up to about $50.

If the duck and toffee banana are not included, the dim sum prices are in the same range as the hotel Chinese restaurants or Crsytal Jade Palace. Dim sum is very good and business is brisk during lunch times at the weekends.

[OsloFoodie]

These look really good, Umami! I can almost taste the toffee bananas...

[Gim]

hey hey...

been wanting to try it there for awhile. was actually free for lunch today... shld have called u huh! aromatic crispy duck... really brings back fond memories.. alex n i used to order it quite often in the UK... i really shld bring him to royal china sometime...

[husky9]

hello...toffee bananas...yumyum...looks so good...any chance of remaking it?

[Cel]

hey...celest here... :) my.. e food looks yummmyy!!

[tiantianchi]

That toffee banana is commonly known as "ba shi xiang jiao - or "pulled thread banana" it can be substituded with apple, sweet potatoes etc.

The traditional way of serving is to bring out the caramelised fruits with a bowl of ice water. You will have to pick up the fruits with your chopstick and along threads of sticky syrup. Dip in the ice water where it will hardened to a crispy crust ( as well as hardened thread of syrup). Unfortunately very few people in Singapore ( or outside China) knew how to do it, with the servers ending doing this for them.

[umami]

Hi Oslo Foodie, yes the banana tasted as good as it looked.

Hi Gim, yea, the duck is a good thing.

Hi cel, nice to hear from you. Hope you are well.

Hi husky9, no chance of me making it, I am better at eating than cooking, :))

Hi ttc, I know what you mean. But the servers also don't know better. Hmmm, idea for your restaurant? I think this method would work well with mango, dragonfruit etc... Chinese fondue!