專欄作家：崔岱遠(yuǎn)

崔岱遠(yuǎn)，北京讀書形象大使，作家、文化學(xué)者，現(xiàn)任中國財(cái)經(jīng)出版?zhèn)髅郊瘓F(tuán)副編審。全民閱讀積極推廣者，應(yīng)邀擔(dān)任第十二、十三、十四屆北京國際圖書節(jié)主講專家，北京大學(xué)生閱讀聯(lián)盟導(dǎo)師，中央電視臺(tái)、中央人民廣播電臺(tái)、中國教育電視臺(tái)學(xué)者嘉賓。系列作品《京味兒》《京味兒食足》《京范兒》引領(lǐng)人們尋著文字感受京城民間最本真的性情氣韻?！冻载涋o典》入選“中國影響力圖書”，“中國好書”，被譽(yù)為接地氣的好作品。

Cui Daiyuan is a writer, scholar in cultural studies, and the Image Ambassador of Reading in Beijing. He currently holds the position of associate senior editor in China Finance and Economy Publication Media Group. An active promoter of Nationwide Reading, he was invited to be the keynote speaker during the 12th , 13th and 14th Beijing International Book Festivals. He is a mentor of Beijing College Students Reading League as well as a guest scholar of China Central Television (CCTV), China National Radio (CNR) and China Education Television (CETV). His Beijing series: “Tastes of Beijing”, ”Food and Drink of Beijing ” and “Beijing Style”, lead the readers to experience the most authentic nature and spirit of folk life in Beijing. Honored as a down-to-earth book, his “Foodies’ Dictionary” has been selected as a “Book of China Effect” and a “Good Book of China”.

“逛故宮，吃烤鴨”已然成了外賓來北京必干的兩件事。要說起來，這兩件事還真有聯(lián)系—都是隨著明朝朱棣遷都來到北京的。不過那時(shí)候烤鴨并不叫烤鴨，而是叫“炙鴨子”，或者稱為“南爐鴨”。

Visiting the Forbidden City and sampling roast duck are two must-do things when foreigners visit Beijing. Interestingly enough, these two things are connected in a certain way—both were brought to Beijing when Zhu Di, the third emperor of the Ming dynasty, moved the capital to Beiping (present-day Beijing). Only back then roast duck was not yet named “roast duck”; it was originally called “Zhiyazi” (grilled duck) or “Nanluya” (Nanjing oven duck).

我曾親眼目睹了一位烹飪大師依古法制作“大明炙鴨子”。是用一柄三股鋼叉把一只腌制好的鴨子串起來，舉在明火上不停地翻轉(zhuǎn)烤炙，直到鴨子焦香酥嫩。之后撕成一條條的，夾在用同樣方式烤炙的空心燒餅里吃。當(dāng)然，烤餅用的不是鋼叉，而是把十幾個(gè)燒餅坯貼在一張有著長柄的大鐵鐺上舉著烤的。炙鴨子的味道著實(shí)不錯(cuò)，只是效率太低，若有十幾桌客人等著吃，怕是伺候不過來，這大概正是它被淘汰的原因吧。

I once personally saw a master chef of Chinese cuisine cook “Daming Zhiyazi” in the traditional way. A seasoned duck was skewered on a steel three-tine fork, held over open fire to roast and constantly turned until it became crispy on the outside, tender on the inside and aromatic. Then the duck was torn into strips and served after being stuffed in hollow Shaobing baked in the same way. Steel forks cannot be used when baking Shaobing of course; instead, a dozen pieces of Shaobing dough were placed and baked on a big iron pan with a long handle. Zhiyazi tastes rather great indeed; only it takes too much time to cook. It is almost impossible to serve a dozen tables waiting at the same time. And this is probably the reason why it became obsolete.  

 
便宜坊的燜爐烤鴨

后來，有了燜爐燒鴨，講究“鴨子不見明火”。是用點(diǎn)燃的秫秸放入地爐里烘熱爐膛，將十幾只鴨子排放在鐵篦子上關(guān)緊爐門，全靠爐壁的熱力將鴨子烘熟。燜爐濕度大，鴨子走油少，烤出的肉暄嫩飽滿、汁液充盈。北京有名的便宜坊現(xiàn)在還傳承著這種老手藝。 

Later on, there were closed oven roast duck in which case “the ducks are not exposed to open fire”. First, the earth oven is pre-heated by burning sorghum straws at the base, and then a dozen ducks are placed in lines on the iron griddles in the oven and the oven door is shut tight, so that the ducks are slowly roasted through the convection of heat by the oven wall. Thanks to the high humidity in the closed oven, more duck fat remains and the duck meat is tender and juicy. The famous restaurant Bianyifang still uses this traditional cooking technique nowadays.

當(dāng)下流行的大多數(shù)烤鴨并非燜爐，而是掛爐—把十幾只鴨子一并排掛在果木柴點(diǎn)燃的明火上烤炙。熊熊爐火把鴨皮下的脂肪徹底熔化，油水“滴滴答答”流個(gè)不停。師傅手握兩米多長的挑桿，不斷調(diào)換鴨子的位置。鴨子出爐時(shí)，但見他后手抽桿，前手一扭再用力一拉，棗紅通亮的鴨子就借著慣性被悠出了爐門。

Most of the currently popular roast ducks are not cooked in closed ovens but hung ovens, where a dozen ducks are hung side by side and roasted over an open fire fueled by fruit wood. Fat under the duck skin melts over flaming fire in the oven and the grease continues dripping. The cook holds a pole more than two meters long and keeps dangling the ducks. When they are ready, he draws the pole with one hand in the rear and twists and pulls with another in the front, and the glowing claret ducks swing out of the oven by inertia.  

The funny thing is that hung oven roasting is not dry roasting. A small hole is made below the duck’s wing, through which it is eviscerated and air and water is pumped in. Then the trunk is sewn up with silk thread and the bottom is blocked with sorghum straw. When the duck is being roasted over the fire in the oven, water boils and steam blows the duck abdomen up, making the duck skin stretched and thin. So when served, the duck skin is crispy and thin whereas the meat is tender and succulent.

掛爐烤鴨的流行，得益于大名鼎鼎的全聚德。清末，前門外肉市胡同有家賣豬肉和生熟雞鴨的小店，掌柜楊全仁見到燜爐烤鴨生意好，于是另辟蹊徑，請(qǐng)到了御膳房專管烤豬的孫小辮兒，借鑒了烤小豬的方法改良了烤鴨，發(fā)明出了這道享譽(yù)世界的名菜。憑著這手絕技，全聚德也發(fā)展成了百年名店。只是這道菜最初并不叫烤鴨，而是叫燒鴨子?？绝喌拇竺菑纳鲜兰o(jì)三十年代才叫起來的。

Hung oven roast duck became popular thanks to the well-known restaurant Quanjude. In the late Qing Dynasty there was a small deli selling raw and cooked pork, chicken and duck in Roushi (Meat Market) Hutong outside Qianmen. Its owner, Yang Quanren, seeing that closed oven roast duck had a good market, hired Small Braid Sun who was in charge of porker roasting in the Imperial Kitchen. By drawing from porker roasting, they improved the duck-roasting method and invented this world-famous dish. And with this unique dish, Quanjude kept growing and became a notable century-old restaurant. The only thing was that originally the dish was not known as roast duck but “Shaoyazi”. The name “roast duck” began being used in the 1930s.

北京烤鴨的經(jīng)典吃法是用荷葉餅裹上鴨肉，抹上甜面醬，夾上蔥絲，這種吃法是當(dāng)初烤鴨從南京經(jīng)過大運(yùn)河傳進(jìn)北京的過程中在山東受到的影響。您看，那荷葉餅不就是一張精致的煎餅嗎?而那抹醬夾蔥的方式，無非是煎餅卷大蔥的精細(xì)化。煎餅卷蔥夾肉的吃法，衍生出的不僅是烤鴨，還有春餅，其實(shí)便宜坊最初就是賣春餅的盒子菜的。

The typical way of having Peking Roast Duck is to eat them with scallion slices and sweet bean saucespread on lotus-leaf-shaped pancakes rolled around the fillings. This shows the influence of Shandong cuisine along the route when the dish was introduced from Nanjing all the way into Beijing via the Grand Canal. Look, isn’t the lotus-leaf-shaped pancake a delicate version of jianbing (literally fried thin pancake). And eating duck slices with sweet bean sauce and scallion is nothing but more delicate yet basically the same as eating jianbing with chives. Aside from roast duck, the spring pancake also rose in popularity due to the way of eating jianbing rolled around chives and meat. In fact, Bianyifang used to sell spring pancakes initially.

烤鴨還可以有其他吃法：可以夾在兩面酥脆的馬蹄燒餅里；可以把鴨肉蘸上用鮮醬油泡上的蒜泥，配上爽辣的蘿卜條……各有各的味道，各有各的情趣。

Roast duck can be eaten in many other ways: put between two crunchy horse-hoof-shaped shaobing; dipped in mashed garlic soaked in fresh soy sauce and eaten with refreshingly spicy radish strips…each way has its own flavor and fun.

吃烤鴨最好在秋天，那時(shí)的鴨子最肥美。一只鴨子片出百十來片丁香葉，每一片上都有肥，有瘦，有皮。夾起一塊鴨肉放進(jìn)嘴里，不用嚼，什么也不蘸，只是咂摸著，吸吮著，那份香醇酥潤頃刻消融于唇齒之間，留下滿口的豐腴和一縷幽幽的果木香。

Autumn is the best season for having roast duck, because ducks then are the most plump and delicious. One duck can be sliced into about one hundred pieces as thin as clove leaves, each containing fat meat, lean meat and skin. Pick one slice of duck and put it into your mouth. Don’t chew. Don’t dip it with any sauce. Just suck on it. The aroma, crispness and juice permeate your tongue and teeth, leaving behind a mouthful of rich flavor and a trace of faint fruit wood fragrance.