Garlic fried duck was born from the “anti-single-day” rice trays and has become a famous delicacy in Hanoi, with many people asking to buy the recipe for billions of dong.
The cold weather is considered the time when Hanoi cuisine “reigns” with all kinds of famous delicious dishes, including dishes made from duck.
Driving around the alleys of the old quarter for a few minutes, you can come across dozens of famous duck restaurants that have been around for a few decades such as Ngan Nhan, Khoa duck, Long Dung duck, Hang Can duck, Phung Hung duck vermicelli… with all kinds of dishes: duck vermicelli, bamboo shoot soup, boiled duck, grilled duck…
But in the past 2-3 years, when talking about duck in the old quarter, young people in Hanoi have been telling each other about a “modern” duck dish called… burnt garlic duck.
The recipe for the dish was born on the sidewalk… but worth billions of dong
Talking about the “story” of the birth of Hang Luoc burnt garlic duck, many people will be surprised. It turns out that the recipe for that dish was born from the hands of a housewife in the family.
Mrs. Thuy said, when she was still selling duck vermicelli and duck vermicelli, there were days when a whole basket of boiled duck was unsold. Unable to sell, she had to bring it home for the whole family to eat to avoid waste… After eating for a long time, they got bored, sometimes the whole family was “scared” of duck.
Then, Mrs. Thanh Tra (Mrs. Thuy’s sister) tried to refresh the family meal by marinating the unsold boiled duck with sauce, spices, onions, garlic… then putting it in a hot pan and frying it until golden brown. At that time, Mrs. Tra only thought of making it a little different to change the taste of the family meal, but unexpectedly, the dish was so delicious that the whole family praised it as delicious and became “addicted” to it.
Later, when she went to help her sister look after the restaurant, Mrs. Tra “happily” made some duck according to the new recipe for herself. When the customer found it strange, she asked, Mrs. Tra invited him to try a piece, the customer “liked” it so much that he ordered half a duck. At that time, she worked hard to cut the duck, marinated it right there for the customer to see. Other customers saw this and were curious, so they also wanted to try it.
Just like that, customers told each other about the special, delicious and unique duck dish that only the duck restaurant in Hang Luoc had, and that you had to order in advance to eat.
Instead of the familiar boiled duck pieces, this duck piece was skillfully marinated, very sweet, and fried in hot, sizzling oil. When taken out of the dish, it was covered with fragrant onions and garlic, chewy but not burnt, nor pungent. Pick up a piece of duck, dip it in a bowl of thick ginger and chili sauce, and eat it with basil leaves and coriander, which stimulates the taste buds in a strange way, making you want to eat two after eating one.
In 2016, this dish was simply called fried duck. Only later did customers who loved that duck dish officially come up with the name garlic-burnt duck. Although the name was not completely true to the spices used to make the dish, but seeing that the name was good, the restaurant decided to use it until now.
As always, when a new dish appears and becomes a trend, it means that a series of other restaurants also imitate it, “displaying” it on the menu with the exact same name. Garlic-fried duck quickly appeared everywhere from Hang Thiec, Le Trong Tan, Nga Tu So, Ha Dong… Some places changed it to make it different, while others tried to imitate Hang Luoc’s garlic-fried duck as closely as possible.