rev:text
| - I didn't know that DaYaLi was a chain prior to coming. I just figured that Peking ducks which hail from Beijing (formerly known as Peking) would be good - or maybe not?!
IMHO the Cantonese-style Beijing duck is much better. We got the Gold Medal Roast Duck ($38.88). This includes:
Roast Duck
Pancakes
Condiments (scallions, hickory sticks, salt, cucumber, grapes?! Yeah, they went there, but the grapes were surprisingly good)
The duck was on the leaner side but then I realized that the leaner duck is meant to compensate for an additional plate of duck skin which is 100% pure fat when you bite into it. (This comes as a separate plate from the rest of the duck). The duck itself lacked any real flavour and was rather bland.
The pancakes (wrap), especially the very first ones were so dry I thought I was eating raw dough. No elasticity at all.
You can choose to have the duck carcass made into a soup or deep fried. We went the deep fried route. Not much to chew other than skin and bones :p
Other than the signature roast duck we had Fish in Chili Oil which you may not think is spicy, but before you realize it, your tongue starts becoming numb. The peppercorns that infested this dish were also highly annoying and only added to the numbing of the tongue. The fish itself was tender, though lacked any real flavour. But that maybe because my tongue was numb... This is turning into a circular argument now...
The Stir-Fried Pork Intestines were really tender and quite flavourful and beware the peppers, because your tongue was already tortured by the Fish in Chili Oil.
The Ham Hock (cold dish) was quite flavourful but not that interesting to look at in terms of presentation.
The veggie dish we ordered was Stir Fried Lotus Root + Water Chestnuts which I really enjoyed because it was crunchy and flavourful.
We did end up trying the DaYaLi pear which is like a sweet version of a Ham Sui Gok except instead of minced meat it's red bean paste inside. I wasn't that thrilled by it and they were definitely stingy when it came to the filling.
At 9PM people were still lined up waiting to get a seat. I wouldn't stand more than 15 minutes in line. Most of the dishes I had here were flavourless and oily. Don't think I'll be coming back.
|