Peking Garden at Greenbelt without the Peking Duck

Peking Garden in Greenbelt is my family's defacto "high end" Chinese food destination where we go for special occasions to eat the lechon of Chinese food, the Peking Duck.  To my knowledge the Peking Garden Peking Duck is flown in daily from Hong Kong although I did hear that it was being sourced from the US (for awhile).  Regardless their Peking Duck is fantastic and nearly every table in Peking Garden has a chef slicing with precision a duck to slices to be enjoyed in at least three ways (soup, rolled with leeks and pita bread and minced in lettuce).  Going to Peking Garden and not having the duck was unheard of, until now.

We went to Peking Duck as a family last Saturday, the funny thing was, this time we had no Peking Duck.  It was my parent's idea, why not try the rest of Peking Garden's fare without the distraction of their star, the Peking Duck.

The sigh of my heart at the non presence of the beloved duck could have been heard a mile away when I learned of this tragedy, nevertheless I was not paying for this meal and couldn't complain.  After all, this was an opportunity to see what else Peking Garden was good at, they do pack each branch to the brim after all.  I began to stuff my face with the delightful fried wanton chips (you should see me eat these, I'm the cookie monster of wanton) while awaiting the food.  We ordered the Peking Garden Special Fried Rice, Sweet and Sour Pork, Deep Fried Beef Tenderloin, Salt and Pepper Squid, Hot Prawn Salad and Scrambled Egg White with Minced Fish and Dried Scallop.

Always delicious salt and pepper squid

Peking Garden Fried Rice - When your name is one a dish it better be good

Deep Fried Beef Tenderloin

I wasn't able to take pictures of everything as everyone was so famished that we dug into the food faster than I could say "please hold on, I gotta take a picture of that".  By the third dish I wasn't able to take a pic of I was all "f@#k it" and dug in myself like a hyena late to the feeding frenzy.

First of all, the Peking Garden Special Fried Rice is one of the best Chinese Restaurant rice dishes I have ever had.  My brother who was based in Shanghai told me that rice is actually the king of Chinese food and is usually served last however we Filipinos are used to having it along with the food and not a course in itself.
The Sweet Sour Pork is good, drier than a lot of places and slightly crispy but I cannot say it is remarkable, it would be ok but not stellar.  The Deep Fried Beef had an odd marinade flavor of hoisin and was more like a deep fried brisket - none of us cared for this and it was brought home, your taste may vary but 5 of us didn't like it.

Now the Scrambled Egg White with Minced Fish and Dried Scallop is a delicate dish because of the light texture and flavors and requires the accompanying black vinegar to give it a kick.  Odd though, it was reminiscent of scrambled eggs and ketchup in flavor to me, matter of fact if you had me close my eyes and made me eat it that is exactly what I would have said it is.

Now the Hot Prawn Salad is my favorite, think of it as a mayonaissy fruit salad with hot giant prawns in a crispy batter with fruit bits such as  pineapple, I must have!

I really missed the Peking Duck, Peking Garden without the Peking Duck is like having the Chicago Bulls circa 84 to 98 without Michael Jordan.  I would have traded all the dishes we ordered and have had just the duck and rice again.  Peking Garden Peking Duck I miss you.