Beijing Duck Feast at Sun Wah Barbecue


Jacob, Ty, Chris, Paul. Sun Wah BBQ, Uptown, Chicago.


Sun Wah has a huge menu, but Jacob ordered off-menu for us.


Tea


Table-side duck carving.


Mmmmm… duck!


Bao


Stir-fry vegetables


Duck fried rice


Duck fried noodles


Huge steaming bowl of duck broth soup.


So much food!


Inside Sun Wah.


The bar was featuring ginger mojitos and ginger cosmos. Delicious or disgusting?


Ducks and poultry hanging in the window.


iOS developers in the wild!

For Jacob’s last day at Roundarch, he took everyone on the team out to lunch. I knew he said we were going to a Chinese place, so I assumed we were going to Chinatown, since it’s not too crazy far from our office. It wasn’t until I was in the Uber SUV (more on that later) on Lakeshore Drive that I realized that was not the case! We were on our way to Sun Wah Barbecue in Uptown!

Jacob treated us all to the off-menu Beijing Duck Feast*. We actually got two of them. It was amazing! We were all served tea to begin and then they brought out the roasted ducks and carved them table side! The meat and crispy skin and drumsticks are all put onto a platter which is then served with a plate of steamed bao, pickled daikon, carrots and other garnish, and hoisin sauce. The duck carcass is then returned to the kitchen to be made into your choice of duck fried rice or duck fried noodles. We had one of each. With the carcass, they also make duck broth soup with wintermelon.

ohmygosh, so good. Everyone was making little bao sandwiches with the duck and daikon and sauce. I’ve been trying not to carb it up lately so I was just going for the duck. It was so flavorful and tender. I can’t get over it. I also ordered a side of stir-fried vegetables, just because I was meat-ing it up so much! Everythings was so tasty. And huge. Really big servings. We had plenty of leftovers to take back to the office for the people who couldn’t make it to lunch.

I can’t wait to go back to Sun Wah and to bring my friends for the duck! Thanks to Jacob for introducing this to me. I wish him the best of luck in his upcoming travels to Canada, China and Korea. It was a pleasure working with him and I hope to do so again in the future!

*According to Sun Wah’s FAQ, there is no difference between Peking duck and Beijing duck. It’s just different dialects. Beijing is the standardized Mandarin pronunciation for the Chinese capital once called Peking.