Chapter 58 On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Roast Duck and Roast Goose

Is roast duck better or roast goose better? This is a question that Beijingers and Guangzhou people often debate when they eat at the same table. The reason why this problem becomes a problem is that ducks and geese are highly similar: 1. Both are poultry; 2. Both are common foods; 3. The cooking methods are similar; 4. The meat quality and taste are similar; 5. , are outstanding representatives of Beijing cuisine and Cantonese cuisine. For city dwellers, when ducks and geese are alive, their appearance is difficult to distinguish.In terms of color, there are no three tones of black, gray, and white, and the fleshy luan above the goose's head does not seem to be enough to form a relatively obvious identification system alone.In addition, the size of the goose is too large, but this can easily be mistaken for the size of the duck.

Recently, it was reported that under the education of Hollywood, children in Taiwan have a clear grasp of the pedigree, species and habits of dinosaurs that have disappeared, but they can't tell the ducks and geese around them. Although the idiom uses goose feathers to describe the size of the snowflakes, counterfeiters often succeed in making down garments made of duck down as goose down (the top grade of down).Chinese medicine also believes that both ducks and geese have the effects of nourishing yin, replenishing qi, and strengthening the kidney. At the same time, both of them belong to "hair".

In Hong Kong, the nickname for male prostitutes is "duck"; in Shenzhen, those who provide paid gay services are called "goose".The local public security department found that there is a certain difficulty in the comprehensive management of "ducks" and "geese", because those who work as "ducks" usually work part-time as "goose".In comparison, it is easier to catch the "chicken". That being the case, it seems that there is no need to make a detailed comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of roast duck and roast goose, and this issue seems to have become a non-issue.

There is a joke that said that A invited his friend B to dinner and had a "whole duck feast". While eating, A introduced to B with praise: this is "mustard duck feet", this is "Fire-burning duck heart", that's "brine duck liver"... just like that, one after another "duck dishes" came up one after another, and suddenly a plate of goose meat came.So B stopped chopping and looked at A with a smirk on his face, wanting to see his jokes.Unexpectedly, A said without changing his face: "Ah, this is the duck's friend!" The original theme of this not-so-brilliant joke was probably "quick wit", but the obvious similarity between ducks and geese makes "quick wit" a bit ridiculous.

The experience of daily life tells us: the more similar things are, the more worthy of comparison.The purpose of comparing (or forcing) roast duck and roast goose is to prove that roast duck and roast goose are good or bad, not because they are delicious or not. Taken as a whole, the geese lost out to the ducks at the outset, which, in fashionable parlance, is "not on the same starting line".The disadvantage of goose in Chinese diet is caused by history.Due to some accident, China became the first nation on earth to successfully domesticate wild ducks two thousand years ago. Although geese were officially listed as six animals in the Zhou Dynasty, that kind of goose is actually a wild goose, that is, a "goose".

As for the domestication of wild geese by Europeans, I can't find out the specific year for a while, but what is certain is that in that year, the Chinese were probably tired of eating both ducks and geese. Of course, it is not all Chinese people who are tired of eating, but a small group of "meat eaters". Before the Yuan Dynasty, the only techniques similar to "roasted goose" in Chinese cooking were "fired", and then "broiled". There was no such thing as "roasted duck" in today's sense.The Tang Dynasty's "Chaoye Qianzai" recorded a cruel barbecue of geese and ducks by officials and eunuchs: "In a big iron cage, put geese and ducks in it, pick up charcoal fire in it, store five-flavored juice in a copper basin, and goose and duck around the fire. Go, drink the juice when you are thirsty, return when the fire is painful, the outside and the inside are cooked, the hair has fallen off, the meat is red and dry, and you are dead."

If it is said that in the big iron cage in dire straits, the geese and ducks were still a pair of fallen people who shared the same fate, then, since the Yuan Dynasty, with the European "stuffy oven barbecue" (that is, in the sealed brick oven) , using the heat released by the heated furnace wall to cook the food, instead of putting the food directly on the fire) technology was imported into China, and the distance between geese and ducks has gradually opened up since then, and they have embarked on the different paths of development. The reason why Western-style barbecue technology could be imported in the Yuan Dynasty was not the result of "opening up" as historians call it, but mainly because the food produced in this way was more in line with the tastes of the northern nomads who had become the rulers of China.

As another northern minority who re-entered the Central Plains after more than 300 years, the Manchu nobles' enthusiasm for ducks and barbecue has not diminished.The pure white wild ducks hunted by the royal family in the Qing Dynasty when hunting in Rehe (the previous roast ducks were black Nanjing Lake ducks) thought it auspicious, so they were domesticated in Yuquan Mountain for more than 200 years, and then improved by the British again. Only then has the "Peking Duck" selected by Beijing Roast Duck today. In a sense, Peking duck should be regarded as a kind of western food (or Hushi).Of course, the reason why it can become a delicacy in the capital also depends on Shandong Rongren, who monopolizes the local roast duck industry.With the efforts of Rong Renren, the roast duck has changed from a stuffy oven to a hanging oven. It is also a great contribution to Shandong food culture.

On December 30, the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861), on the New Year’s Eve dinner menu of Zai Chun, who had just ascended the throne, there were 17 dishes, and there were as many as six types of ducks. In addition, there are "Bird's Nest Gold and Silver Duck", "Bird's Nest Slippery Duck Strips", "Bird's Nest Slippery Duck Waist", "Bird's Nest Stir-fried Shredded Duck" and so on.What should be eaten for New Year's Eve dinner, the little emperor may not have a say, but is determined by the traditions in the palace.Therefore, Beijing roast duck restaurants still deliberately create a royal and noble color on the packaging.Therefore, "Quanjude History" dared to say: "Learn to eat in three lifetimes, and learn to wear in five lifetimes." As for the whole process of eating roast duck, it is even more detailed step by step.From diners choosing duck in the kitchen, writing inscriptions on the duck body, to lotus leaf pancakes, sweet noodle sauce, scallions, garlic, sugar, radish strips, salt and pepper, pepper, salt and other different combinations of ingredients, wrap it up and bite it down , you probably know what is called "culture".Look at the "sliced ​​duck" knife technique performed by the chef in a snow-white uniform on the spot, which is exactly 108 knives. In the martial arts of Peking Opera, one is the Cantonese bandits who raised the rebellion in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

In fact, it may not take "three lifetimes" to learn to eat. When I went to Yuan Mei's place, there were ten dishes of duck dishes, but only one kind of goose was left. Roast ducks are swaggering in the imperial city, but geese are wandering in Lingnan.Many years later, roast goose (may also include stewed goose in Chaozhou cuisine) can become the most representative civilian food in Guangzhou. I think it is because of poverty and the result of Westernization. Roast goose is a traditional diet of Europeans.Readers who have never eaten that kind of roast goose should also be in the firelight of "The Little Match Girl" with the roast goose that "jumped out of the plate, with a knife and fork on its back, and walked towards the little girl". The geese met each other.Before the grassroots class in Guangzhou heard about Andersen, they should have often smelled the aroma of roast goose wafting from the sand.

Of course, roast goose is also likely to be a low-cost imitation of roast duck for the lower class, because goose is a vulgar food.However, the decisive factor here, I believe, is mainly because the ducks in the Pearl River Delta are not tasty.Qu Dajun's "Guangdong New Language" said that although the "Binhai Field" in Guangdong is rich in ducks, "they are all sea ducks, and the taste is not good." .The best duck is "often entering the water to eat white clams, also known as clam duck... a teal, it is the most edible after the Double Ninth Festival and before the beginning of spring, and it is of great benefit to the sick." The hard-won clams and ducks are still on the Manchu banquet in Guangzhou Restaurant today.As for geese, "Guangdong Xinyu" only records the "spirited geese" in Conghua, because "singing every night", so the function is to watch the watch, but there is no mention of related food. Although the method of roast goose is very similar to that of roast duck, the roast duck restaurants in Beijing are usually very ostentatious and the service is more standardized, while the roast goose in Guangdong is mainly sold in the roast meat shops in the form of food stalls. At least it is located in the vegetable market.Even the "Best Roast Goose" on Wenming Road, which is recognized by local diners as the best, is just a few tables and chairs added randomly on the basis of the roast meat stalls, and it basically does not lose its essence of fast food takeaway."Mei Jing" and "Yu Kee", which appeared in recent years, are famous for their roast goose, but they can only be called "more formal restaurants with roast goose as their main focus", and they must not be compared with "Quanjude". In all fairness, if you take off the cloak of "culture", the taste of roast goose is better than that of roast duck. A piece of duck meat lacking lotus leaf cake and all the ingredients, except for tender characters, can hardly be called delicious.Roast goose is different, it does not need any ingredients (the sweet and sour plum sauce used to eat roast goose does not impress the taste buds of every Guangzhou person, it should be regarded as the roast goose industry to change the vulgarity of roast goose and make itself more It is an effort to be "literate" like a roast duck), and its fatness is enough to impress diners.In addition, although "crispy skin and tender meat" is the delicacy standard shared by roast goose and roast duck, except for the left leg which is more delicious (the goose's preferred leg, the meat is smooth), the gravy on the back part of the goose is thicker and the fat is evenly distributed. Except that it is not greasy, the rest is to stuff the roast goose into the mouth. Unlike the roast duck, the roast goose cannot tell more stories. However, being uneducated means being uneducated. Even if you barely have a little breath, you still have no foundation if you have no foundation.No matter how delicious the roast goose is, it is impossible to write a large volume of "The History of Quanjude", let alone the 360 ​​performances of the Beijing People's Art Drama "The First Floor Under Heaven".Roast duck can be the first-class lunch of Air China. If you try it with roast goose, people will suspect that you are an airline of a township enterprise, and even the plane was obtained in exchange for it. As long as it is delicious and "resist food", Cantonese people never care about whether it is cultural or not.It is as delicious as roast goose, and even in the customs of the Cantonese, it is a negative cultural symbol.In the old days in the Pearl River Delta, when a bride lost popularity on her wedding night, the South would send a big red suckling pig to her on the day she returned home. On the contrary, the bride could not return the product, but the suckling pig was replaced with a roast goose. However, in mainstream Chinese culture, the "educated" ones are always geese rather than ducks.For example, the pitching of the goose once inspired calligraphy masters in the area, and brought "cultural" vocabulary such as "goose yellow" and "goose feathers sent thousands of miles" to Chinese characters.Such important cultural tasks are rarely entrusted to ducks.After the west wind spreads to the east, we also believe that the self-improvement of ducks is nothing more than becoming swans, and preying on swans is a double taboo of law and culture.If Wang Xizhi killed his geese and grilled them, he would not be far from burning zithers and cooking cranes.