Pre-Planning and Peking duck
March 8, 2010 in China by Carrie Armbrecht
Blog entry by: Kim Frashure
As stated by Xuchen, “We are in Beijing; we have to try Peking duck, right?” Last evening the U.S. COSEE-China workshop members convened for the first time at Beijing’s world famous Peking duck restaurant near Quanjude. Approximately fifteen of us were seated at a large round table in a private room. Introductions were made and undeniably, the breadth and depth of ocean science expertise, facilitation, and education was overwhelmingly impressive. C0-PI, Bob Chen, outlined the schedule for tomorrow, detailed who’s who among our Chinese partners, and restated the overall goal for the week which included discovering the best networked model among a variety of models for COSEE-China.
Soon afterward our Peking duck arrived where it was carefully sliced into thin slivers by our server. Bob Chen demonstrated how to roll our thin pancake flat before adding the slivers of crispy and moist duck, scallions, and cucumber, and then, rolled it up, and dipped it in a thick plum sauce. Apparently Peking duck dates back to the Ming Dynasty era (1368) and later played a role in warming U.S./China relationships during President Nixon’s presidency. Given the rich history of Peking duck and the careful detail that goes into its preparation, I think that it was the most suitable cuisine to serve while we outlined our own careful details in forging this new and uncharted relationship with COSEE and China.
