Originally Posted by
sinoflyer
This is a pet peeve of mine. A Chinese person makes up a story to a Westerner for whatever reason, a story that they would never say to another Chinese person, because both of them know it is untrue. The Westerner then goes on to perpetuate the scads of misconceptions about Chinese culture and the Chinese themselves.
The "Cantonese" version described here is actually the classical way of serving Peking duck, often called "Duck Eaten 3 Ways":
1) duck skin served as a finger sandwich with condiments;
2) duck meat stir-fried with vegetables (i.e., yellow garlic chives);
3) duck soup.
It's on the opening page of the menu at Quanjude and basically every other Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing and the rest of China.
Locally in the more casual restaurants of Beijing, where Peking duck is not their specialty but they keep a little oven off to the side fired up and ready, you can have Peking duck served whichever way you want, including having the duck skin and meat carved together.
I'm part Chinese, but I guess they must consider me a Westerner then. LOL
When I usually have Peking duck in the US or Canada, it's usually carved skin and carved meat separately with either thin pancakes or steamed buns. Then the option of having a stir fry or soup with the bones.
At Quanjude, I had one plate with just the skin and another plate with meat with the skin (see picture). It was served with thin pancakes and they gave me some soup afterwards. I did not receive duck meat stir-fried with vegetables. So I'm note quite sure which one is really the classical style. I personally like having duck meat to wrap and not just the skin alone.