Melbourne Peking Duck,
24-1 Jalan Telawi 3,
Bangsar Baru,
Kuala Lumpur.
Business hours: Tues-Sun
(lunch) 11.00am to 3.00pm
(dinner) 6.00pm to 10.00pm
Tel: 03-2202 1588.
Non-halal.
WHENEVER Chia King Hong makes a visit Down Under, he never fails to include a stop at his favourite Peking duck restaurant.
Paying a visit is easy, but getting a seat is definitely a challenge.
This is why the 42-year-old Chia is thankful to his sister-in-law, who lives in Melbourne as she helps him with the reservations when he makes his trip there.
“There are two dishes one cannot miss at the restaurant in Melbourne – the Peking duck and Vietnamese Pho,”said the full-time developer.
His must-visit shops to get the former are the Old Kingdom Chinese Restaurant and Simon’s Peiking Duck, both known to many for their specialty and require guests to make reservations in advance.
According to Chia, the dishes served by both restaurants are different compared to the ones found in Malaysia.
“In Malaysia, we mostly wrap the crispy skin of the duck, but in Melbourne, the chef slices the meat and allows us to wrap the pancakes ourselves,”said Chia.
The health-conscious Chia said he decided to open a restaurant here six months ago, with the Peking duck as its main attraction.
Main attraction: The Peking Duck is sliced and wrapped in the pancake along with cucumber, scallions and plum sauce.
During the food review, Chia taught us how to fold the pancakes after filling each with duck meat, sliced cucumber, scallions and a dash of plum sauce. Before we knew it, we had finished folding and couldn’t stop eating one after another as the pancake was quite addictive.
“We have had six guests sharing four ducks over a meal,” said Chia.
Each duck sold weighs between 2.3kg and 2.5kg and according to Chia, the restaurant is able to sell up to 60 ducks on weekends.
When asked if the dish tastes similar to the ones served in Melbourne, Chia assured that it does as his chef was trained by a well-known Peking Duck master, chef Ben Yong.
Yong also helped Chia set up the restaurant and made sure the dish remained authentic.
The menu at the restaurant is simple; there are two Peking Duck sets to choose from, priced at RM78 and RM88 each.
For each set, diners will have 16 pancakes and sliced duck meat, stir fried bean sprouts with shredded duck meat and a bowl of duck soup with salted vegetable and tofu.
For an additional RM10, the second set offers diners an additional dish of fried noodles or rice with shredded duck meat.
Those who fancy ordering side dishes can choose a variety of dishes comprising pork, prawn, chicken, tofu, egg, vegetables, rice and noodles.
We also tried the Prawn With XO Sauce, Marmite Pork Ribs, Chicken in “Gong Pou” Style and the Broccoli Tofu.
The restaurant occupies the first floor of a shophouse, but finding it won’t be difficult as it is located along the same road as popular eateries such as Alexis Bistro and PappaRich.
This is the writer’s personal observation and is not an endorsement by StarMetro.
