Duck, revisited

My brother and I did not always have a very close relationship. There were times when we'd irritate the hell out of each other and I'd end up running to my room to scream into my pillow just to vent all the anger and frustration out of my system before it blew up.

But these days, we share alot more in common, one of that being a love for good food. However, as my exposure to food in the past few years has been more westernised, I don't have as much experience and knowledge when it comes to quality local food. Sure, I know the common food haunts such as Geylang and Smith Street in Chinatown, or those nearby like Bukit Timah Wet Market (which I wrote about before). But beyond the few more well known ones, I'm really quite ignorant.

When I told my brother about my disappointing duck experience at Johnson Duck along Bukit Timah, he immediately recommended that I go to somewhere in Paya Lebar for the best duck rice he has ever had. But when he told me that the shop was owned by his friend's family, I was a little doubtful as I thought his judgement might have been a little biased though understandably so. Still, I was open to suggestions and took up his offer to introduce me to his version of 'The Best Roast Duck, Ever'.

Today was D(uck)-Day. But not before we splashed around the pool together in the sun with two of our cousins, Marcus and Freda. It has been eons since I saw my brother in the pool and he really is such a natural joker, especially in the pool. That's because everyone is half-naked and any shred of self-consciousness gets thrown into the wind. I can really understand why my cousins sulk a little when he doesn't turn up for some family gatherings.

So after an hour and a half's worth of soaking in chlorine and getting a healthy tan, we showered and headed straight to Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint in Upper Payar Lebar Road. We were all ravenous, and that may have made the food tastier than it might have been, but I emerged from the shop agreeing with my brother that that was really the best duck I have ever eaten.

By induction, that would imply that this roast duck beats the one at Four Seasons in Bayswater,London. But let me explain.

Eating pure fat is something I do once in a while when I feel it is worth it. For example, the foie gras terrine I had at Robuchon was something I did without giving a second thought. Foie gras, braised pork belly, bring it on!

The duck at Four Seasons is infamously fat, with delicately crispy skin and some really solid, thick, syrupy sauce to go with it. On my first time there, I actually tried to remove the fat, until my friend insisted that the fat was crucial to the taste of the meal. So everytime I pop by Four Seasons with friends, I'd eat enough duck fat to last me the whole week.

But this one trip to Kay Lee's has taught me that taste does not necessarily have to come from the fat. Their duck, like Four Seasons, is tender, moist, and with a beautiful crisp skin. While remaining extremely flavoursome, it does not have the Four Seasons's signature thick layer of fat. I'm so, so glad to be enlightened about this, because this means that eating good roast duck can now be guiltless!

The sauce that they served was also ultra yummy without being overly sweet or artificially thickened with corn starch. However, I really have to say that I prefer Four Seasons duck sauce for its slight herby flavour and thicker consistency, making it more decadent and pleasurable.

We also had another plate of roast meat and char siew. While the roast meat was nothing spectacular, the char siew was certainly the first of its kind that I've tried. Instead of being made with lean meat, it had generous amounts of fat. This meal was turning into one big irony, really. But the Char Siew was so amazingly tender, obviously because of the fat, that it was such an experience to eat. My experience with char siew are obviously few and far apart, but my impression has always been that it always require a fair amount of jaw work. This char siew however, just melted in my mouth. But definitely not for the faint (or weak) hearted.

The last item we had was a bowl of Zhu Du Tang (Pig's Stomach Soup). I'm really big on innards, especially pig's stomach. In this bowl of hot (in both senses of the word) soup, the pig's stomach was particularly tender, that also did not require any vigorous chewing. It was however, more peppery than most. Nearing the end of the soup's lifespan, you'd be able to scoop up at least a huge tablespoonful of crushed white pepper. Superb, as if it was made just for me.


The meal was simply phenomenal, heightened because of the bad roast duck I had not too long ago, and also because it had been such a long time since I hung out with my cousins and my much adored brother.

Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint
No 125 Upper Paya Lebar Road
Singapore 534838
Tel. No. 67438778

And here is a video I took, just to convince you that... Damn nice leh, woohoo!