Sunday, July 06, 2008

Pressed Duck by Le Banyan, Bangkok

Stella, it's the valuable prize for you!  The certificate for taking this pressed duck on the 20,850th order.  208 is a very good Chinese no. and then 50 is a very lucky Thai no.  So this combination is very very rare!  Congratulations!




1. the chef will slice the duck breast into 2 portions (minimum order is for 2 persons to split 1 duck).  The remaining meat will be put into this bloody presser - see the blood and the body fluid.  

2. Then the Chef will use the shallot paste, red wine and this duck blood to cook the sauce.  Note the blood will easily become solid if you don't stir it well and control the heat well, like the Chinese pig or chicken blood solid cube.

3. the dish should have tasted better if they don't let me try stirring it.

4. Ok, then the duck breast was pan fried and served on the plate

5. Then put the sauce evenly to cover well the duck breast.

6. Done!  Actually the taste may not be accepted by most people because it has a very strong wine taste and the blood taste like the Chinese pig's or chicken's duck solid cube (that's why I told you I can't say it's a pure Western taste because we had the similar food for Chinese cuisine.  



OK, what poultry is this one?  Then what will they do with it?  A valuable secret prize will be given to the winner (for the final answer one).  All right, a 2nd step photo is out here.  Guess...

58 comments:

Fillet-O Fish said...

Easy one. This must be a game goose, and they are going to cook the roasted goose.

Thailand Club said...

this one i cannot guess, coz i know what they do with this poultry

Thailand Club said...

i should say i went with in-the-sky and witness what they did, so i cannot guess

Stella said...

OK, I need some hint.
Did I eat this poultry in BKK?
Do we have this in LA?
Do I know this food?
Which restaurant was this taken at?
I'd better be careful this time as you guys "Lai Pai" and voided my free meal on the salmon thing last time.

in the sea said...

Fillet-O, you are a bit close, but it's not to be roasted. The cooking method is a very unusual.

Stella, you can keep on guessing the answer, but at the time of dead line, the last posted answer of yours will be the confirmed one. 買定離手 (Leave your hand off the the table once you place your bet). :)

I will set the dead line later on because I need to hint the answer one step by one step, as it's quite complicated to make this dish. In fact, I don't think only a few chefs can know how to make it.

Stella, I guess you may have eaten this poultry in BKK but may not be in this cooking. Yes, you can find it in LA. You mean do you know the dish name of this one? If so, I am not sure because it's quite a rare one. This restaurant is quite famous in Bangkok but I don't think you have been there, nor any of my friends.

Thailand Club said...

hint also shall be one at a time, not multiple hints in one time

so asking 4 hints in one time definitely too much

Stella, pls respect the spirit of guessing game

if u ask for all hints in one time, and if u make multiple guess in a single time, u never enjoy the real fun of a guessing game

Unknown said...

I guess this is a roasted goose or roasted chicken or roasted duck.

Anonymous said...

How about Rotisserie Poultry?

Fillet-O Fish said...

So I am correct, it is game goose! Very usually cooking method? I guess they freeze the goose to do the Chilled Goose in a Frozen Jelly.

in the sea said...

It's not a goose, and it's not a rosted one. Guess again. Mmmh, it's a western cuisine but somehow I would relate it to a Chinese cuisine too, as the Chinese cooking varies very extremely. So a hint - this cooking method is way beyond a normal cooking. Mmh, I would say it's very torturing (both for the chef and the poultry).

in the sea said...

Wow, I just found out it was posted some comments (far back on other topics) which is a big hint on this dish. Sorry you need to have a "carpet" search.

Thailand Club said...

and that was posted by me right, wow now big hint really!

Yai said...

This is not easy, although the poultry is so obvious a whole duck.

I would guess Peking duck but maybe not, so my guess is Chinese Pi-pa Duck.

Anonymous said...

Yai, in the sea mentioned it is western cuisine, so shouldn't be the Pi-pa duck.

in the sea said...

Mmmh. sorry I can't say it's not a Chinese cuisine as its origin. Don't think too much on Western cuisine as it will confine your way of thinking of how this food was made.

Anonymous said...

If you said it's difficult to do and very torturing, it should be something we haven't heard. I guess it's double boiled duck.

Anonymous said...

If you said it's difficult to do and very torturing, it should be something we haven't heard. I guess it's double boiled duck.

Thailand Club said...

torture? this is not foie gras from the fatty goose bor

Anonymous said...

So many hints point to this duck prepare the western way beyong normal preparation method, let's say it is confit de canard or duck confit!

a friend of J

Anonymous said...

Ok, I saw the skin was a bit burnt and also the pan. My guess is Smoking pan fried duck!

This is quite fun for you and Thailand Club getting 3 questions and they are separate.

Man

Stella said...

Can I pick one answer out of five choices from you?
Since I never eaten this good it is hard for me to guess. I am neither a gourmet nor a good cook, so I shall have some benefit out of this guess.
I hope this is not the blood duck famous at Normandie right?
And it is not those turkey we ate at Thanksgiving right?
Please give enough hint as the guess is only fun and fair if I have enough hint. For dumb reader like me you shall give more hint ok. you shall help the less privileged reader.

Anonymous said...

Humm, I guess this is the Taiwan style steamed salty duck.
From Jack Huang

Anonymous said...

Ok, I know what it is. In the sea likes Almond Tea a lot. Must be Almond Tea! Give me the prize - Almond Tea. You can buy me the Almond Tea at Tang Dynasty.

Tim

Thailand Club said...

guessing game does let us learn stick to our believe, swinging left and right make us lose the crown

Stella, multiple choice r excuse for u, pls guess the CSI way try to analyze with logic, all the hints r in place

in-the-sea, Stella didn't make her guess at 2:29, she just ask questions, not placing official guess

Tim, i believe that u r not placing guess in this article (as the poultry in no way connect to almond tea), but placing guess in the previous article right?

in the sea said...

OK. It's not a duck confit, not smoking pan fried duck and not steamed salty duck, but all of these are quite good guess.

Wow, Stella, you are a dumb reader? Certainly no. As I told, a big hint was already in some previous posts. :)

I got some phone calls, and they made their bet thru' phone.. haha. Some said it's "Eight treasure duck" and some said it's Peking duck because the tummy is so big.

I can't give any more hint. If no one gets the answer, I will post one photo by one photo and ask you what will be the next step.... :)

Thailand Club said...

actually i already given Stella a giant hint

hi hi those smart people read my comment 10:28 to Stella (together with Stella's own comment) u shall find some cue

Anonymous said...

This duck dish must be grand as it was placed on a silver plate. The duck was slightly grilled by cooking torch so the skin turn slightly brown, when picture enlarged, I saw the duck was uncooked. So it was raw duck in fact. Bloodstain spilled on the lettuce and the silver plate. Probably the chef is going to make the dish in front of customers. If it is a cook-to-order dish, it couldn't be those require few hours of cooking time such as roasted duck or smoked duck. Only method shall be pan fry esp. blogger mentioned that it is a western cuisine. But pan fry the whole duck? No, I think the chef only pan fry the duck meat as it require only few minutes to cook, in front of you. However, blogger also mentioned the cooking method was unusual! So the chef didn't pan fry the duck meat, but instead use some kitchen tool to help. I guess this is Stone Seared Duck Meat in Grape and Red Wine Sauce.

We were told that the prize is a valuable secret prize, so it must the the stone grill. Thanks In the Sky. My address is xxx.

/William

Anonymous said...

I agreed with William. This food must be cooked in front of the customer because it's not yet cooked. In the sea mentioned it's torturing for the chef and the poultry. Stone grill sounds possible, but it's not rare enough as they said. The duck already died. So torturing is what in the Sea feels. Then torturing for the chef? That means the chef spent much time to do it, or maybe quite dangerous. If cook in front of the customers in western food, they may have some show like burning fire on the food. So I think it should be "burning the duck in very hot flame".

Man

Fillet-O Fish said...

I think both stone grill and duck flambe are possible answers.

Now we narrow down to the raw duck cook by a chef in front of the customer. It shall be a kind of cooking show and it shall be fun. I just don't understand why it is torturing!

Only raising fatten goose for foie gras and cutting shark's fin are torturing.

Why kind of preparing for duck dish is torturing?

Maybe the duck was kill in a torturing way to make the meat delicious! The duck was sank in wine, like the Chinese drunken shrimp. Then the chef prepare the drunken duck in front of customers, probably flambe the sauce and pour them on the duck. So I guess it is drunken duck flambe with wine sauce.

Stella said...

OK. I am guessing this is the Thansgiving turkey.
Richard guessed this is the blood duck.
Richard and I have different gmail addresses as we are obsering the rule. We are just being efficient here due to my limited computer time.

Thailand Club said...

for Chinese reading people we understand what do u mean (blood duck) but for western people they may not understand

Richard, there is a proper name for blood duck, what is it? (i hv told Stella before while we dine at Le Normandie)

in the sea said...

Sorry again, Man and Fillet-O, you guys did have a good sense and I do feel it's a possible answer but it's not.

Stella, looks like your home is an internet cafe. I suggest you buy a wifi-connection and then get one more mini-book; so that you have 2 companies to connect to internet.

Anyway, still no exact answer is there. Besides, my topic is" what will they do with this poultry?" You need to describe like Man and Fillet-O on the process. No need for the details like how many tea spoons of salt, sugar...etc. Just the main point of how they cook this one and the proper name of the dish. Try harder... :)

in the sea said...

Ok, deadline will be another 2 day time, by 12 midnight 10th July GMT+8, HK time.

Mike said...

wow, this is really raw duck ready to cook, but what r they going to do next, how to cook?

i think Stella and Richard, again, the answer is at your mouth

Man, William, Tim, Cindy, Lily, fillet-0, Yai, all friends, don't stop, enter the guess

try it harder!

Stella said...

Hey Mr. Thai and Sea,
Please translate "blood duck" for me in English. I will not remember the name. I know I guess this right.
The process of this is exactly the way that the chef makes this dish at Le Normandie. Same step, same process.
To be exact, they put the duck on a nice silver plate, bring this in front of the guest, make a bow, ready to be taken a picture, use the knife for cutting, release the blood, make the dish.......
You can tell I know the whole process by now, can't you?

Stella said...

Oh, the chef will also use a very special cover(like the Golden Bell Cover) to make this dish.

Anonymous said...

Looks like someone is guessing the process right. Stella must have been told about this dish before. If her guess is correct, it's something new to us. In the sea, we wait for your answer.

Man

in the sea said...

I got a phone call to request for my reply because the answer seemed to be there. Stella, I think it's a bit unfair for the others because you were told of this dish a few months ago. Sorry my friends, Stella is correct though her term is not exactly correct but I think Thailand Club told her in Chinese. Stella the exact term is "Pressed Duck". Actually, you are 95% correct but I will still give you the prize (I will post the prize later when I get back home). It should be "pressing the duck meat" in a pressing container for the blood and the body fluid...etc., not release the blood because the duck was not lively killed and the blood can't be released in a natural way.

Why I said it's torturing for bothe the chef and the duck, is because the chef needs to turn the wheeler on the pressing container so hard. Then for the duck, though dead, its meat got pressed in such a way. Imagine if you were the duck, do you want to?

Stella, note this restaurant is not Normandie. Then one more guess - what is the name of this restaurant? Don't worry I won't take back the prize if your guess is not right.

Anonymous said...

How can we guess? Pressing the duck meat! Torturing?

Tim

in the sea said...

Sorry Tim, I know it's hard and that's why I told you it's a very unusual way to cook it. Ok, time for me to post the sequence of the making of this duck.

Thailand Club said...

no no no, i didn't tell Stella exactly how they cook the pressed duck at Le Normandie, i just told her about the bell like pressing tool, i told her the silver bell like thing is for doing the pressed duck dish (of course 'blood duck' in Chinese when i told her), so she did use her own imagination to make a guess of the pressed duck process

Mike said...

hey in-the-sky, maybe we should tell them how much the pressed duck cost at Le Banyan as it is cheap compare to La Tour d'Argent over 100 EURO and Le Normandie (Oriental Hotel) THB2,150++

so interested person shall rush to eat this good-value pressed duck by two funny French chefs

Le Banyan will say goodbye (woo woo woo see my tears!) to Bangkok after 20 years in town, as the restaurant compound had been sold to build a new condo in mid-2009, and two chefs may retire back home after half century living aboard (unless new proposal making them stay), big lost for Bangkok gastronomy scene!

and also they are the most friendly French chefs i hv encounter in Bangkok if not the world, we will miss u Michel and Bruno!

Stella said...

Mr. Thai is correct. He did not tell me the process of this "blood duck"(if I did not even remember it was called the "pressed duck" so let alone to know the cooking process). What Thai mentioned was only the "golden bell cover" and this is a hard to cook dish and therefore expensive. I made up the cooking process and the rest using my own imagination.
Sorry I am too smart to make you think I knew it. The fact is NO, I did not know about this at all. And I am not smart.
I guess this right is because this is the only dish I heard from Thai. So how can I guess something else?
The name of the restaurant is "Le Banyan, Bangkok".

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting the photos for how to make it. Does it taste like bood because the liquid looks like "very" blood? Now I wonder why foreign people said the Chinese are cruel and eat anything.

Anyway it's just a game and we enjoy the whole process.

Man

Thailand Club said...

taste was exactly like u drink a bowl of pork liver soup without the soup but with lots of brandy and wine

i almost drunk eating the pressed duck

in the sea said...

Actually when Thailand Club mentioned about having the truffle sauce, we should have that though I don't like the truffle taste much. It's because I think the blood taste will match with truffle. Like preserved bean curd with lamb, both are so matched. Le Banyan is very close to my regular stay hotel - Adelphi, just 3 minutes on foot. So I am much sure I will go there for other food, before their restaurant is to be closed towards the end of this year. BTW, it cost THB1,200 per person. If you can drink red wine, it is really good with red wine and the Chef will recommend which red wine to go with. I don't drink red wine much but at the request of the Chef, I took it all.

Stella said...

Wow, it costs $40 US to eat this dish. For sure this is not my cup of tea.

Stella said...

Thank you Sea for your prize. I like anything related to "8".
What does 50 mean in Thailand?

Mike said...

5 is the lucky number all Thais believe, probably because of the King Rama V brought modern civilization to Thailand about a century ago

and 5 also pronounce 'ha' in Thais, kind of a happy tone

Stella said...

Thank you Mike for the explantaion of "5" in Thai.

Thailand Club said...

the fish soup in Le Banyan is also very good

in the sea said...

Sorry I should have posted that duck soup, but the photos were messed up. I need some time to fix that.

Stella said...

I went to book store today to look for Chow Chung's cook book. No Chow Chung was found yet. Instead I saw a book about duck cooking. I quickly checked if they introduce the "press duck" there and they did. The method and process is exactly like what you mentioned here. That book costs $29 US.
We save $29 by reading your blog.

Thailand Club said...

funny Stella, u thought we made up the duck recipe hahaha

Anonymous said...

Haha. made up story with photos - lot of work. I know Thailand Club and in the Sea like to make fun but this one can't be.

Man

Fillet-O Fish said...

Congratulation Stella! You got the prize.

Hey so it is pressed duck! I had been trying so hard to guess so am I entitled for a consolidation prize, like, a bite of the duck with the blood sauce :)

in the sea said...

Har... Stella, you really did some work for it but why in in a reverse way before guessing. Yes, of course, we know that you wanna try to get the recipe and cook one by yourself.

Actually for those who are going to try this dish at Le Banyan, try the truffle sauce though it's B300 more but it may be quite a different taste.

Stella said...

Fish Burger,
I will share the prize with you.