My name is Joe Ng, and I'm the executive chef of RedFarm and Decoy restaurants.
My background in cooking comes from Hong Kong.
I never went to culinary school.
I grew up in the kitchen.
I started to cook at 11 or 12-years-old.
I was cooking street food in the beginning.
Then I started working in restaurants after a couple of years.
Most Americans know about peking duck.
We thought, "Why don't we try to do peking duck in a different, less traditional way?"
We tried testing and creating more sauces and made different kinds of vegetables.
I make our own pancakes, and we butcher the duck in a different way.
Me and my partner try to put creativity into our food, the plating, and the ingredients
as well.
When we prepare the duck at the beginning, we wash the duck and try to get the skin as
clean as possible, otherwise it will turn very dark or burn.
We use ducks that are about six-and-a-half to seven pounds.
That size is really good for barbecue.
The muscle and the meat is very balanced.
We put all of the five-spice flavors in there, as well as salt, ginger, and scallion.
And then we use a special nail to close the bottom.
It's very important that the ducks come with the head on, because we are pumping air in
their necks to try to separate the skin from the meat
Then we put it in boiling water to get the muscle tight.
We put sugar and vinegar on top of the duck, which helps the skin not crack.
That's why they come out golden brown, because of the sugar and the vinegar.
We hang them for about 24 hours to make sure the skin gets dry.
The dryer they get, the more crispy the skin gets as a result.
We turn the oven to 450 degrees.
We cook that for 15 minutes, and then turn down the temperature to around 350.
It cooks for another thirty minutes.
The last 10 minutes are very important, because the fat drips down from the top to the bottom.
We have a pan underneath that catches all the duck fat.
In general, people probably have about two to three wraps per person for each duck.
Here we have three to four sauces, but the traditional way is only hoisin.
That's it.
What about using sesame peanut sauce or adding cranberry sauce?
I would like them to try different flavors, so they don't feel bored.
There's a different kind of taste in each wrap.
Twenty to 30 years ago, people only knew about American-Chinese food, which is served at
the take-out restaurants.
The really traditional food that we ate at home is not what you're going to buy from
the take-out restaurants.
If all these Chinese people are eating traditional Chinese food at home, why don't they serve
that in the restaurants?
That's why we tried to create a different menu with a new take on Chinese food.