Almond Pressed Duck
Almond Pressed Duck, or Mandarin Pressed Duck, (in Chinese Wor-Shu Chun Op) was a popular Cantonese dish in Chinese and Polynesian-themed restaurants in the United States in the middle of the 20th century. Crispy and boneless, it is deep-fried and served in either medium-sized pieces of uniform shape or as an entire duck. It is generally served with a sauce poured over it, either a brown one or sweet and sour.[1] Crushed or powdered almonds are frequently sprinkled over it just before eating, hence one of its names. Its preparation can be lengthy process involving a number of steps over a period of several days, making this relatively simple-appearing dish a labor-intensive process. This may explain its virtual disappearance from present-day restaurants: today there are only a handful of restaurants that feature it on their regular menus.
References
- ↑ A menu circa 1959 from Don the Beachcomber's Polynesian restaurant says that it is "molded, crisped in special oil, and served with wild plum sauce"
Sources
The Key to Chinese Cooking, Irene Kuo, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1980 — the Chinese equivalent of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by the same publisher