|Peking Duck sliced and prepared| |Literal meaning||Beijing
Roast Duck| The dish is prized for the thin, crisp skin, with
authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and
little meat, sliced in front of the diners by the cook. Ducks
bred specially for the dish are slaughtered after 65 days and
seasoned before being roasted in a closed or hung oven. The meat
is eaten with pancakes, scallion, and hoisin sauce or sweet bean
sauce. The two most notable restaurants in Beijing which serve
this dish are Quanjude and Bianyifang, two centuries-old
establishments which have become household names. Duck has been
roasted in China since the Southern and Northern Dynasties. A
variation of roast duck was prepared for the Emperor of China in
the Yuan Dynasty. The dish, originally named "Shaoyazi" (燒鴨子),
was mentioned in the Complete Recipes for Dishes and Beverages
(飲膳正要) manual in 1330 by Hu Sihui (忽思慧), an inspector of the
imperial kitchen. The Peking Roast Duck that came to be
associated with the term was fully