Forget that Christmas ham and toss out that Thanksgiving turkey. If you want the classiest, most extravagant and flavorful meal Chinese cuisine has to offer, you need something more regal and imperial: a meal made specifically for the Emperor.

Peking roast duck or 北京烤鸭 (Běi jīng kǎo yā) is the quintessential fine dining centerpiece in a Chinese meal. Like numerous Chinese dishes, it is a cornerstone of culture and class-ism, harking back to the Yuan Dynasty (元朝 Yuán cháo）of the 14th century where it was called 燒鸭子. It soon gained clout in high society and quickly became the dish favored by Emperors and the royal families.

Much like Germany with its century-old brewing laws and standards, 北京烤鸭 cooking statues, as made clear by the Imperial Kitchens of the Ming and later Qing dynasties, follow very strict practices of raising, cooking and preparing the dish. Ducks are often fattened, hand plucked and feathered, washed and cleaned, inflated with air (to separate the skin from the meat) and then glazed in maltose syrup. They are then hung on hooks and slow cooked inside a wood fired, brick oven as seen below:

After the duck is cooked, it is usually wheeled or carried out to the table, where it is expertly and deftly sliced into 3 layers as the salivating dinner guests look on. First, the top layer of crispy-crunchy skin is removed from the duck and served with a sugar and garlic sauce dipping sauce. Next, the meat of the duck is served with miniature pancakes， 春饼 (chūn bǐng)，scallions and a sweet bean sauce. The meat is placed inside the pancake (like a taco) with the scallions and bean sauce and then devoured, by hand, with great zeal. Lastly, the remaining fat, bones and tendons are cooked in a broth and served prior to dessert.

The beauty of 北京烤鸭 is the ambition of flavor that it draws upon. All five areas of taste (savory, sweet, sour, salty, bitter) are covered. The skin covers the bitter and sweet (garlic and sugar). The meat covers savory, sour (fatty meat and scallions). The broth covers the salty aspect, ensuring that all your taste buds have been throughly satiated. Talk about a complete meal.

It makes sense that such a specifically crafted and painstakingly prepared dish would come from the Chinese culinary elite. What amazes me, however, is that while the dining crowd has changed vastly since its inception, the preparation hasn’t one single bit. When you eat a 北京烤鸭，you are eating a little piece of Chinese history and culture and as testament to its longevity and popularity, you’ll leave the restaurant joyfully stuffed.

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