Beijing Duck for Chinese New Year at Sun Wah

I noticed that Sun Wah restaurant had posted its Chinese New Year special of a Beijing Duck dinner for two for $28.

I'm a big fan of Beijing Duck having first had it on a trip to Hong Kong when I was 15 with my parents. We ate it one night, and I insisted we have three more nights in a row. (Hong Kong was pretty reasonable in the late 70's.) So happy_stomach and I decided to check it out.

The meal was five courses that started with a salad. The salad was fresh and tasty with a good amount of vinegary bite to the dressing.



This was quickly followed by the main course--the duck itself.





The duck was perfectly done. There's something magical about about Beijing Duck: the combination of the crispy crunch of the duck skin, a taste of dark meat, and the sweetness of the plum sauce offset by the zing of the scallions. Sun Wah's version was of a very high standard and was quite amazing when considering the price. The only slight disappointment was that they were running low on pancakes so that rationed four per duck order, but the combination of the ingredients on the plate was also satisfying.

The main course was followed by winter melon soup and duck which was satisfying although a little bland.



And is traditional at a Chinese meal the fried rice came out last. They used the leftover duck for the rice which was tasty, but hs and I left most of that for leftovers because we had filled up on everything else.



They ended the dinner with raspberry sorbet. It was flavorful, but on the sweet side.



All in all, an incredible bargain for a Beijing duck feast. The entire dinner including a beer, tax, and tip was $40.

The woman who sliced our duck said that the dinner will be available through Sunday, but they would like a day's--or at least four hours--notice. So if you're interested call ahead!

Sun Wah BBQ
1134 Argyle St.
Chicago, IL 60640
773.769.1254

Looks wonderful. I love Beijing duck (although last time I was in Beijing, I think the restaurant where I had it was still listing it as Peking duck). Delighted to see a dish with winter melon, as well. I loved every winter melon dish I had in China, but have not found any of those dishes here. I'll have to trek down to Sun Wah sometime and check out the menu.

hi, just wanted to clarify for those of you planning to order the beijing duck after this weekend's promotion. we will need a day's notice, preferably 8 hours minimum because the raw duck does need to set. i apologize for our server's misinformation. she did not know the actual prep time because she assumed we use the same duck as the roast duck we serve. for beijing duck, we use a slightly different duck from the regular roast duck. so, if you want one for dinner, please be sure to call us in the morning. have a great new year!

Thanks for the clarification, Happy New Year!

I went to Sun Wah last night for the New Year's Peking Duck Special. I was joined by jazzfood and a friend of his. The $28 dinner for 2, along with a small order of roast pork was more than enough food for the three of us.

The meal began with the salad as posted up thread. Next, we were introduced to the charming Laura Cheng, one of the children of the current owners who has recently graduated from Kendall College and is beginning the process of taking her place, along with her sister and brother, as the next generation owners of Sun Wah (in a few years).

Chef Laura Carves Tableside



As you can see from the above picture, the Beijing Duck served at Sun Wah is a bit non-traditional, as slices of duck are served rather than strictly the skin for the pancake course. Another non-traditional note is the fact that they serve puffy but flat steamed buns instead of pancakes. Neither of these departures from tradition bothered me, though. I enjoyed the meatier, more substantial "sandwich".

Those that know me know that I am easily distracted by a good duck. This was particularly the case last night, as I forgot to take a picture of both the beautifully arranged plate of carved duck with skin as well as the steamed buns or even a finished sandwich. Let me tell you, that was some good duck! For that matter, I didn't get a decent picture of the soup course either. Like CCCB I found the soup to be bland, but a few shakes of white pepper remedied that situation.

The next course was the aforementioned duck fried rice. By that time, I had recovered my senses enough to start snapping pictures again. I didn't really expect much from this dish, secretly wishing we were being served a duck/noodle dish instead, but I was wrong! The fried rice was terrific, with a generous amount of duck and veggies mixed in.

Sun Wah Duck Fried Rice


Just as we were thinking that we had consumed a perfect amount of food, jazzfood noticed a plate of steamed oysters being served to another table. Being LTHers...well, you already know what happened next.

Sun Wah Steamed Oysters With Ginger and Scallions


The dessert course was house made raspberry sorbet that Chef Laura had whipped up. It was very good, with a concentrated berry flavor.

Sun Wah Raspberry Sorbet


Today is the last day of the New Year's Special, but both Laura and her Sister told me that Beijing Duck will be available from now on with at least a few hours notice. I'll be taking them up on that offer sooner rather than later.



Edited to correct the chef's name.

Great pictures and report, Steve!

Another non-traditional note is the fact that they serve puffy but flat steamed buns instead of pancakes

I understand that the heye bing for Peking duck, literally lotus-leaf cakes, are usually puffier buns in Beijing and the surrounding area; pancakes are more common here in the States since they can be prepared further in advance for crowds.

The best Peking duck I've ever had was at The Orchid Szechuan in Ballsbridge, Dublin (120 Pembroke Road) in 2002, featuring tableside carved duck and steamed buns. It's across from the Chinese Embassy and used for state dinners and celebrations. I know you and I are also both fans of the non-traditional preparation at Opera; here, the best recent Chinese duck I've had was at Double Li (twice-cooked shredded duck).

We were still early enough to catch the last of the Peking duck at Sun Wah this evening. We took a friend along, but there was fully enough for three. We particularly enjoyed the soup as wewll as the duck -- and the raspberry sorbet was surprisingly good as well. Seth Zurer, alias Tech Extraordinaire, and his charming wife Karensa, were sitting just behind us, and also clearly enjoying the duck.

hello lthforum!! my dad, his partners, and us "kids" want to thank all of you guys who came in for the special this weekend and gave us these great reviews. this is a real boost and gives us more confidence to try new things. we are constantly trying to improve. thanks to the criticism from the first post, we've improved on the soup and hope that you'll be back soon to try us again. please look for more promos to come in the future. i will post them here than instead of on the professional page so more you will know about them. and i'll try to remember to post some pictures from our test runs so you guys can salivate during the anticipations.. we wish everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous year of the rat. gung hay fat choy!

those of us from sun wah

ps, chef laura's last name is cheng..

Hi,

The best place to post special events or promos would be on the Events board, because it is transitory and dated information.

I was sorry I couldn't make it today for the Peking Duck. The pictures and reports sound like it was a success.

Regards,

stevez wrote:


Today is the last day of the New Year's Special, but both Laura and her Sister told me that Beijing Duck will be available from now on with at least a few hours notice.

I cannot look at these photos again--they make me TOO hungry! Sorry to have missed it.
Any mention of what the price for a Beijing duck dinner such as this will be now that the New Year's special is over? Or is a meal like this (with these accompaniments) reserved only for the New Year celebration?

sunwahrestaurant wrote:ps, chef laura's last name is cheng..

My apologies to Laura (and your family). I have corrected my original post.

I had lunch at Sun Wah with my brother today and we got a chance to ask Laura about the future of the Beijing Duck special. She replied that they were not currently doing it as the amount of work that she had to put in it was exhausting. I recall that she said she was still catching up on her sleep from that week.
She did indicate that they would try to put it back on the regular rotation at some point due to the great response they got from it. She was not sure when and even mentioned that they may substitute some sort of chicken preparation as a way to make it easier for the restaurant to prepare.
Laura was extremely pleasant and polite... she even called me and my brother "gentlemen"!
We had the octopus whiskers (great for those that prefer the tentacles to the rings in a dish of calamari), lamb hot pot and a small order of hong kong style pork--- everything was as good as always.

I had an incredible meal this evening at Sun Wah BBQ. I called this afternoon and was told by the charming Laura that the Beijing Duck would not be available again until this weekend, When we arrived this evening Laura was our host and server and told us that they moved twice the number of Bejing Ducks they expected over the new years holiday. She said she is still catching up on her sleep after carving more then 40 ducks.

We started with a plate of the Octopus Whiskers which are just incredible, then followed with a bowl of Wonton Soup and and a duck soup with a cliantro flavor (the name escapes me) For our mains we gorged ourselves on Salt & Pepper Shrimp, A BBQ platter with bbq pork, smoked duck and soy sauce chicken (being wed they were out of the salt chicken ) We also had the excellent dover sole filet special and a smattering of house pickled cabbage, house pickled thai peppers and some crispy chicken skin to gnaw on. Over all every dish was outstanding with the octopus whiskers receiving a perfect score from both the russian and east german judges.

The real star of the meal was Laura. After graduating from Kendall in December she is now working full time in her dads restaurant with both her brother, the bbq maven, and sister who is also a chef. She told us about some of the changes that already are taking shape at Sun Wah, including the addition of a wine program and a full bar, pairing down the menu somewhat and the eventual relocation of the restaurant in its entirety to a space on Broadway across from the building owned by Aon just North of Argyle. According to Laura, this move will occur in approximately one years time. This is obviously significant--I asked Laura if it was okay to broadcast this news and she consented. I thought you all might like to know.

.
Hello Gorgeous!



It was Steve Z's, also known as 'Duck's Bitch,' birthday on Tuesday and what better way to celebrate than with Beijing Duck at Sun Wah. With a couple of days notice* Chef Laura was kind enough to put together a multi Beijing duck lunch that puts to rest the question of who in Chicago has the best Beijing Duck. (Hint, it's not Shanghai Terrace)

Three ducks, three salads, lemongrass vinaigrette with bean thread noodles highlighted by strands of pickled daikon.

Bean Thread Salad w/Lemongrass Vinaigrette


As mentioned upthread, Chef Laura departs slightly from traditional skin only, leaving a generous portion of rich duck meat on crisp skin.

Beijing Duck
[/img]

Another slight departure, and one I heartily endorse, she served the Beijing duck legs as a stand alone. You haven't lived until you've munched a freshly cooked Beijing Duck leg.

Beijing Duck Legs


Birthday boy gets first choice. (Steve Z (L), Jazzfood (R) )


First course was served with steamed buns, hosin and a gingery sweet sour Chef Laura was testing. I preferred traditional hosin.

Steamed Buns


Mr. Duck about to be multi tasked into soup and duck fried rice.


Duck soup was delicious, rich broth nicely offset by astringent watercress.

Watercress and Tofu w/Duck Soup


Duck Fried rice at Sun Wah may just have replaced Thai style crab fried rice with an egg as my favorite fried rice preparation.

Duck Fried Rice


In addition to Beijing Duck we shared a platter of Sun Wah's spot on BBQ pork.

BBQ Pork


Daily specials card listed four Fresh Vegetables, Tong Ho (Crown Daisies), Pumpkin Squash, Watercress and Peapod Tips. Tong Ho were described as bitter enough to be displeasing to the sensitive palates of children, but suitable for adults and seemed the perfect accompaniment to rich Beijing Duck.

Tong Ho (Crown Daisies)


Pumpkin Squash, which is described here by Mike Sula (m'th'su) who joined in the Z B-day festivities, was the best damn squash I'd ever eaten. And I don't just mean because of the pork belly, the squash itself seemed to have absorbed richness from the pork belly and was meltingly tender.

Pumpkin Squash


We capped off our feast with raspberry sorbet, included in the price of the duck, and just when I did not think lunch could get any better the bill came and I was flabbergasted by the absolute incredible value. Nine people, eight of which split the bill** paid a total of $20 per person. This included three multi course Beijing ducks, a platter of BBQ pork, Tong Ho (Crown Daisies) and pork belly studded Pumpkin Squash.

Chef Laura was the height of professionalism, service terrific, rice, tea, water, chili oil, switching out plates.....Exceptional value.

Chef Laura, Steve Z


Enjoy,
Gary

*I called Friday for Tuesday lunch

**The birthday boy was treated

Yesterday's birthday lunch was a real highlight for me. If anything, the duck service was even better than Chinese New Year's. I've been on somewhat of a marathon of birthday eating over the last couple of days and so far, this meal is the one I've enjoyed the most. In fact, as soon as I read Gary's post I heated up the leftovers for dinner before writing this. I think I agree that this is the best Peking Duck in the city.

P.S. Thanks again to everyone who shared this meal and bought me lunch!

I have to apply some Victor Borge punctuation here.

First course was served with steamed buns, hosin and a gingery sweet sour Chef Laura was testing.

First course was served with steamed buns [1], hoisin [2], and a gingery sweet-sour [3] which Chef Laura was testing.

or

First course was served with steamed buns [1], hoisin [2], and a gingery, sweet-sour Chef Laura [3]. <pause> Was testing.


I like it either way.


It would have been even better if you used "gingery sweet and sour Chef Laura was trying," since "trying" is a common adjective. Then we could have had:

First course was served with steamed buns and hoisin. A gingery, sweet sour Chef Laura was trying. [challenging]


I think from your report that would be less true than the others. Happy Birthday, Steve!

Not only am I still kicking myself over missing this one, those pics have me just about ready to throw myself off a cliff. Unbelievable stuff!

Happy birthday, Steve!

=R=

This was a great meal. I look forward to your next birthday, Steve.

A really great meal. The duck was very good, and the rice and soup were even better. Luckily I got the leftover soup with a lot of bones to suck on .

I too am very regretful I missed this one but I think it would have been a bad idea to take off for a 2hour lunch on my first day at a new job.

Gary's pictures do, however, tighten my resolve to get to Sun Wah for Beijing duck and, of course, happy birthday Steve. I can't think of a better B-day meal for "duck's bitch"!

Kabocha カボチャ - "Japanese pumpkin"

You've probably had this at Sunshine stewed in tsuyu or fried as slices in tempura.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabocha

Hi,

On Saturday, stopped in for an early lunch of Peking Duck (I like the ring of the old name), some oysters and Daisy Crown Greens. Those greens are a fern type plant with a taste similar to Dandelion greens, though less bitter. Prepared very simply like pea shoots was a nice balance to the duck.

We met Chef Laura's sister Kelly, a law student, who carved our duck tableside. I enticed her to also slice off the skin around the neck as well as the tail for my dining pleasure.

I learned Kelly was the source of the Happy Chef New Year menu translation, which I expressed my appreciation. I inquired if Sun Wah had a Chinese-only menu, which she advised they did not. She believes in having the menu reflect everything that is available for anyone to choose. She recalled reading a post where a restaurant tried to deny a patron a duck casserole. I admited I was part of that party, though I did offer, "I'm not a normal American." Kelly had a sweeter suggestion, "Tell them you are Chinese reincarnated in an American body!" I will try that on for size sometime, though when they give me the 2-headed stare, I will offer to pay whether I like it or not.

Regards,

I am new to the LTH forum, but not to eating out. I am used to being let down when it comes to recommendations, whether from friends or so called experts. It seems most people are too easily satisfied.

When my wife and I recently got in the mood for some Peking duck, I turned to the internet. I searched for the best peking duck in Chicago. My search led me to the LTH forum which led me to Sun Wah, which led me to the best duck I have ever tasted. It is perfectly cooked, served by an incredibly friendly family, and all at a more than reasonable price.

I returned for the second time last night with a family member from out of town. Once again everything was fantastic. They were experimenting with a few different recipes for the side dishes, but it was all as fantastic as the first time.

I started my search for Peking duck, and found the best Beijing duck anywhere. Call ahead, and go. You will not be dissapointed.

Welcome to LTH!

ar7499 wrote:They were experimenting with a few different recipes for the side dishes, but it was all as fantastic as the first time.

I'm curious--were these new dishes, or were they just tweaking the recipes for the sides already mentioned?

Hi,

After Culinary Historians on Saturday, about a dozen of us dined on 4 Peking Ducks at Sun Wah BBQ. For some poeple this was their very first Peking duck experience. Apparently they were so pleased, they can now die and go to heaven. One experienced diner had eaten Peking duck in Beijing, then thrilled us all by stating the duck at Sun Wah was better than any he had before.

Before carving into duck #4, Kelly offered an explanation of their technique. She said in classic preparations, the only hole on the duck is via the neck, which is the channel they use to remove the entrails. To do the same here is very labor intensive. Instead they open a hole under the rib cage to remove the entrails. Once removed, they pump air between the skin and meat. In the classic method, then a sauce of vinegar and molasses (I've used honey) is spread on the skin. Sun Wah instead uses the same basting liquid they use for their roast ducks. They feel this improves the flavor of the skin. Those of us who have had Peking duck elsewhere or made it at home, agreed this was a good addition to the technique.

Their first weekend selling Peking duck over the new year, they sold around 50 ducks. Her Dad had maybe carved 2 Peking ducks while in culinary training. She said their first efforts to carve ducks was learning on the hoof, though they were veterans by the weekend's end.

Our party as large as it was, they thoughtfully prepared the soup two different ways: with water cress and with mustard greens. They also split the duck meats into two trays of duck fried rice and two trays of duck over noodles. Every variance were hits with the crowd.

We did have the stuffed Kabocha squash with 3 different kinds of tofu and wood ear mushrooms. I had the impression this may be a variation from what people had earlier. I carefully scooped the meat from the skin, then later learned the skin was considered a desireable edible. We also had another round of Daisy Crown greens, which those who enjoy bitter greens liked a lot.

Later when I told my friend Helen about the duck preparation. She wondered if they dress the ducks on the premises. She has had a dish of stir fried duck intestines she thought was quite delicious. A question for Kelly to consider another day.

I love innovation!

Regards,

cathy,

in reply to your question, we do dress our ducks in-house. our regular ducks come prepped and ready to go, but our peking ducks are not prepped so we have to dress them. we don't keep the entrails except the livers and gizzards because those are our crew's favorite parts. personally, i love duck intestines too. but the work involved to clean and prepare them is long and intense. so we tend to chuck those parts. plus, by the time we're done pulling to get them out of the cavity, there aren't that many large parts left to wash, cook, and eat. i have yet to find a place that makes them well for any extended amount of time. however, i will remember when thinking out the "private home" menu.

kelly

Wow never had duck but it looks sooooooo good!

I walked past Sun Wah at least 5 times while getting baked goods when I was in Chicago this weekend.

Next time I'm stopping.

We had a nice meal at Sun Wah yesterday to usher in the Year of the Dragon. No Beijing duck but about half the dishes on the special menu featured the super-fresh soy products from the Cheng family's new Sun Xien.



I enjoyed the entire meal but for me three dishes stood out. One highlight was their take on Chinese vegetarian chicken—fresh tofu skin rolled around dried mushrooms and other vegetables. Saucing was beautifully restrained, not too much, not too sweet.



A version of beggar's chicken (Plans for Large Wealth) also featured tofu skin but less prominently. A boned chicken, stuffed with lotus seeds and other goodies, came wrapped in tofu skin and then in a lotus leaf. Dramatic presentation and it tasted great.





Pork belly with maca root (Halls Full of Children) showed off a vegetable I'd never tried before. The starchy tuber, tasting like a cross between chestnuts and turnips, contrasted beautifully with the rich meat. I don't know if this is a usual pairing but it's one I hope to have again.



Many thanks to the Cheng family and staff and best wishes to all for the New Year.

Sun Wah BBQ
5039 N Broadway
Chicago
773-769-1254
http://sunwahbbq.com/

Anyone else going this year (Sat 1/25 and Sun 1/26, $45). We've signed up for Sunday.

nr706 wrote:Anyone else going this year (Sat 1/25 and Sun 1/26, $45). We've signed up for Sunday.

I wasn't familiar with the festivities, so I had to look it up (here, for anyone else interested.) I've put the word out to my circle of friends, but I may be interested!