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You know that thing? That thing that’s everywhere, and it sounds like something you should already know about, so you don’t really want to ask? Well, we know about it, and we’ll give you the intel. How popular a delicacy is Peking duck? Popular enough to warrant an10,000 square-foot museum dedicated to it in China. It’s located in the downtown Beijing branch of the restaurant chainQuanjude, which has been serving roast duck since 1864. (Not too shabby!) Among the 500 items on display are a coupon from a 1901 duck sale and photographs of Mao Zedong chowing down. Peking duck ranks high among the Chinese dishes that have made the trek Westward, but there’s a lot to it that you may not know. We asked Ed Schoenfeld, the co-owner of Decoy, a Peking duck-themed restaurant that opened this past spring in New York City, to help us fill in the gaps. How It’s Made: Peking duck takes several days to prepare. First, fatty birds bred specifically for the dish are pumped with air to separate the skin from its meat. This insures that the “skin [is] very crispy and the meat succulent,” said Schoenfeld. They’re then scalded with boiling water, painted with a sweet mixture of maltose and water, and hung inside a 500-degree oven for up to 75 minutes. Only then are the ducks artfully sliced and trimmed of excess fat. What the Name Means: The dish takes its name from a now out-of-favor transliteration of “Beijing.” In English, the dish is often called “Beijing duck” or simply “roast duck.” | 
