Duck Evening, 18 September 2010

I don't know if this has anything to do with anything but I was mooching sadly along the side of a lake recently in London and my shoe got covered in duck sh*t in no time. This seems to me that there is rather a overpopulation of ducks in Europe and therefore it seems like we should do something about it. So we will.

Since I am such a lousy judge of so many things recently in my life, I would like you nice people to help me choose which species of Anatidae (duck) we should cull in September 2010. Choices are: (a) Brandenburger Ente (b) Barbary Duck and (c) Pekin Duck (yes, spelt Pekin, and nothing to do with Beijing).

Votes via email please and depending on which species wins (or rather loses), we will select a restaurant best known for culling that species of duck and save people the risk of having to clean their shoes every time they walk near a lake. Decision will be made just after end of August so if you are not fond of walking in green duck sh*t (and rather prefer the taste of those pesky birds), well, now is your chance to do something positive about it.

Remember, no decision has been made about the restaurant yet until early September - all we know is that it will specialise in duck, duck or duck.


Chris

PS. A Poem About Duck

A funny word is Duck
For it rhymes with short words like Tuck
And Buck
And Muck
And even Cluck.

Hot Duck Evening at Hot Spot, Saturday, 18 September 2010

From the responses I have received from the duck survey, the overwhelming conclusion is that many more words rhyme with duck than just tuck, buck, muck and cluck as mentioned in my poem. For example, it seems that luck, puck, ruck, struck, chuck, pluck and even yuck rhymes with duck. Well, as I'm a really shy diffident sort of guy, I just can't think of any more words that would rhyme with duck and in any case I fear I am digressing anyway.

For this email is to announce that Pekin duck has won in the survey (by 2 votes) and therefore we will be doing a full-blown traditional 5-course Peking Duck dinner (done the same way as in Beijing itself), complete with wines and dessert. Now that would normally be simple enough, but there is a little twist in that the Chinese owner of this restaurant is also a serious wine buff which I can attest to from the bottles I have seen at his place. So I am leaving the choice of wine to him, but I think that we are in safe hands as he seems to really know his stuff. To make it more fun, we have again organised a fixed-price deal for this rather special and interesting dinner including the wines, but excluding water and coffees.

Therefore, on Saturday, September 18, we will be having our dinner at the Hot Spot on Eisenzahnstraße 66, 10709 Berlin, right next to the Ku'damm near Adenauerplatz U-Bahn. The deal we have done is 40 Euro for the 5-course Peking Duck dinner, including wines, and if you do sign up, you will be required to remit the cost in advance as this is again a special arrangement. The full menu is as on their speisenkarte:

Die berühmte Ente aus der Peking-Küche, fünf-gängig:

1. Kalte vegetarische Vorspeisen
2. Knusprige Haut mit Brustfleisch von frisch gebackener Ente,
die mind. 24 Stunden lang eingelegt und luftgetrocknet ist;
serviert mit Fladen, Gurke, Porree und dazu harmonisch
abgestimmter Weizenpaste-Soße
3. Gebratenes Entenfleisch mit Gemüse, Geschmack nach
Ihrer Wahl
4. Suppe aus den Entenknochen
5. Frisches Obst mit gebackener Banane


I know some of you have already written to express your interest in a good duck, but now that we know what we would really be eating, it would be very kind if everyone interested can sign up by dropping me an email, even if you had already done so earlier. This is because, apart from being diffident, I am also rather maladroit with too many emails. :o)

All those that make the list will be notified by 10th September latest and remittances must be received by 16th September latest as the restaurant needs some notice for the preparation of the ducks.

See you all soon!

Chris

How it went on the night...

I have to admit that even I was surprised by the quality of the duck served. The starters were a trifle naff but when they brought in the duck, it was simply sensational - the best duck I had all year, I was thinking, reminding myself that I can now also save a few shoes. The rest of the meal was also tolerable but it will take something to beat that single duck dish. The wines were all white German, tastefully selected by the owner and they really seem to fit the dinner, which was very pleasant and surprising. So overall, a very enjoyable night again! (Oh, I included some pictures of lunch the next day - it wasn't duck but it was pretty good too!)

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