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A little reason to celebrate

National Peking Duck Day

Food · January 18

A food day for Peking duck, the roast duck with crisp, glossy skin, carved at the table and wrapped in thin pancakes with scallion and sauce.

National Peking Duck Day falls on Monday, January 18, 2027. That is 83 days away.

Peking duck is a roast duck prized mostly for its skin. The bird is prepared so the skin dries out before roasting, and it comes out of the oven thin, crackling and deep amber, with the meat underneath still tender.

The dish is famous as much for how it is served as for how it tastes. In many restaurants the duck is carved in front of the diners, often into neat slices that each keep a piece of skin. Those slices go onto thin, soft pancakes with a brush of sweet bean sauce or hoisin and a few strips of scallion and cucumber. You fold it up and eat it by hand, which makes a formal-looking dish feel pleasantly casual.

It is usually a shared meal. One duck feeds a table, and it often arrives in stages, with the skin and pancakes first and the rest of the meat used in another dish or a soup. Some restaurants ask for the order ahead of time because the preparation takes a while.

Making it at home is a project, mostly because of the drying step, but simpler versions get close. Even store-bought roast duck, pancakes and a jar of hoisin can turn into a decent wrap night.

The scallion is there for a reason. Its sharp, fresh bite cuts through the richness of the skin, and without it the whole bundle tastes heavier than it should.

Ways to celebrate

• Share a Peking duck with friends at a local Chinese restaurant.
• Try rolling your own pancakes with duck, scallion, cucumber and hoisin.
• Ask whether the restaurant needs your duck order ahead of time.
• Make soup from the leftover duck bones.

Dates

All national days on January 18

Also on January 18

• Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• National Gourmet Coffee Day
• Winnie the Pooh Day
• Thesaurus Day

Categories: Food days