Ming Xin Roasting Pecking Duck Honest Review

Ming Xin Roasting is a relatively new business that popped up in early 2021. Their first few products? Peking Duck and Lechon de Leche.

As Chinese New Year was drawing nearer, I had a hankering for Peking Duck, but was wary of ordering from the big Chinese restaurants because they have a nasty tendency to deliver late, especially during major holidays. Lo and behold, Ming Xin’s Roasting ad suddenly popped up on my feed (my gosh, FB ads really work!), and the entire ordering process was so seamless…. Five minutes later, I had ordered, paid, and was waiting for my meal LOL.

So, before I even talk about the food. Let me provide a quick introduction to Peking Duck. Peking Duck has always been a mainstay in all our families’ major celebrations (when we eat at Chinese restaurants that is), akin to lechon for Filipinos. At its peak, Peking Duck makes use of a very specific breed of duck called the Imperial Peking. When it’s killed at about ~six weeks old, air is forced between the skin and flesh to puff out the skin so the fat will be rendered well during the roasting and the skin will remain crisp (arguably, my favorite part of the dish!)

Peking Duck therefore is typically served in three ways :

• Course #1: Just the crispy skin accompanied by hoisin sauce, scallions, and thin what-flour pancakes
• Course #2: Chopped duck meat, served with mixed vegetables
• Course #3: Salt and pepper duck bones (or sometimes, made into a soup with celery cabbage)

Keeping this in mind – I’d like to point out that Ming Xin Roasting’s Peking Duck is not actually Peking Duck, but simply Roast Duck. I knew this when I was purchasing, but just wanted to clarify for people who might not be aware of the difference. So in this instance, I knew I was getting the entire roasted duck – chopped up (as I requested).

For the price of PHP 1,500, it was okay – relatively decent. Unfortunately, the skin wasn’t crisp – probably because of travel time, and I realized that duck meat on its own is rather bland (when not accompanied by hoisin sauce, mixed vegetables, or salt and pepper). Having said that, the meat was tender and not tough – which is always a plus.

Ah well, every time I’ve ordered duck during this pandemic, I keep telling myself I should STOP ordering takeaway, because I’m invariably disappointed by the soggy (or not so crisp) skin. Yet, I fall into this trap again and again every few months.