Food, travel, recipe & sights

Pipa (Pear Shaped Lute, Chinese guitar)

The word “Pi” meant “to play forward” and “Pa” meant “to play backward”. The pipa had a half pear shaped sound box, a crooked neck, and normally 4 or 5 strings. The Pipa arrived in China in the 4th century AD from Central Asia. The history of pipa dates back more than 2000 years. Tang poet Bai Juyi described the Pipa in his “Song of the Pipa” as “large pearls, small pears tumbling onto a plate of jade”, shown the great popularity in the Tang and Song period.

Image and quote sourced from : Chinesecultureonline)

This is where the pei pa duck derives its name from.  Ducks are spread out like the above musical instrument, the head is the narrow part and the body, the pear shape part.  It is then air dried, seasoned with whatever secret recipe and then deep fried.

We bought half a duck at RM15.  The skin is crispy and the sauce that goes with the duck is super yummy.  However, I remembered this duck tastes much better twenty years ago.  Probably I have much more expensive taste now than before?   The stall has been operating for a long time and last time, people claimed the owner used mercury to make the skin this crispy.  Well, I don’t know.  I only eat them once in a blue moon, anyway.

The owner is called Chu Yoke Weng (or pork Weng).  He has his original stall at Jalan Boundary and Jalan Air Itam’s junction (the road going into Rilfe Range).  He only operates in the evening and the ducks are usually sold out very fast.

The best part of the duck is the sauce.  I am pretty proud that I got this picture of the sauce spread out like a professional!  You know, those little dribbles of sauce done by those expert chefs?

I know Pei Pa is sometimes roasted but this stall deep fried their ducks.  Don’t ask me for recipe, though because I don’t think I want to eat such fattening food all the time so I never try to source for recipe.

So, if you crave for some pei pa duck, do check out the coffee shop on the right side (when you turn in from Jalan Air Itam to Jalan Boundary).  Besides this pei pa duck stall, there are other hawkers around.