First of all, there's traditional Peking duck and then there's a variant that resembles Peking duck but with crispier skin (peen pay ahp). Fewer and fewer places are making traditional Peking duck these days because it's more time consuming and difficult, plus with the large Cantonese population here, the demand has been for the crispier stuff. Traditional Peking duck uses air to separate the skin from the body and then the duck is hung to dry before roasting. With "peen pay ahp", the duck is spiced, steamed, and then deep fried to get a good crisp. The frying also renders more fat off so it comes off the meat easily. You can't trust the English menu because they're both called Peking duck since most "bok gwai" can't tell the difference. It'll be more specific on the Chinese versions of the menu. Places that do it the traditional way are more likely to serve it with crepes, places that do "peen pay ahp" will pretty much always only do the buns.

 

Crazy Sherm - I didn't know that, I've had both and couldn't tell why they were different, I def prefer the traditional one, much tastier to me.

I also hate those stupid pork buns...they are terrible. I'm sorry I have no idea where to get good duck and crepes around here...last time I had duck that I liked I think I was in England of all places.

Good Luck.

 

http://www.yelp.com/biz/great-china-restaurant-berkeley

 

Good info, gents. Looks like I have a few places to try

crazy sherm, good post. It's gotten to the point where many people are not just confusing Peking duck (bakging tin ap) with the pin pay ap variant, but even getting HK style roast duck (siu ap) involved in the confusion