Those who know me well know that I love to trust a restaurant’s vision. Yeon Gyeong has a handful of course menus but their first page lists the peking duck menu. How can you go wrong with a first page selection? It was a seven course afternoon after all.
We tried to reserve ahead but they weren’t taking reservations for the holiday. That’s okay we thought. On this day, the luck we had was the line moved fast. Spoiler alert: it was well worth it.
There were about 60 people in front of us. It took about 40 minutes for everyone to cycle inside. Actually, side note, it’s a great place for a big party. They trolled through the line to find parties of 8+ to seat at specialty tables. I’d let the line manager know if you’ve got a big party. You might get in early.
I was a big fan of the interior decoration. It was spectacular and had the strong vibe of 20th century Chinese luxury. I was a little bummed at where they sat us because it was hard to take photos of the restaurant. So it goes, I wouldn’t have wanted to wait longer for a table.
We talked a bit about what to order in line. Waiting a line like that you get pretty hungry, so we had pretty much figured it out. Seven courses it was. The crescendo of the meal would be the Peking duck shortly following the duck soup.
Being quite peckish, we subbed out the salad with Tangsuyuk. Let’s get started and fast! Besides, after sitting in the cold wind waiting, something hot was what the doctor ordered. Our bellies were happy at the start. The crunch was good and the breading was well done.
During this, I told the story that a friend told me about the origin of the dish. My date laughed, “Where did you learn that? Is that in Samkukji?” Funny. My thanks go out to a friend.
Shrimp toast is one of those dishes that pop up everywhere. Plenty of bars serve it as an appetizer, too. It is not my favorite and quite often it comes out quite dry and overcooked.
However, here it was perfect. That golden color fades less than a few millimeters into the appetizer. It may have been the best shrimp toast that I’ll eat in my life given that I choose not to eat it often. The texture range from exterior crunch to interior softness was a great balance. The flavor was strong without being overpowering or too shrimpy. The sauce was delicious, too. It was a great setup for what would come next.
After the bready and crunchy toast, came the soft dimsum. The delectable dumplings are rolled behind glass while you’re waiting in line. If you were not too hungry before reaching that point in line, watching dumpling after dumpling be carefully crafted will likely change that.
It is a classic soup dumpling. The fold is beautifully done. You have to lightly break the exterior with your chopsticks and then drink out the soup broth. I was impressed with the tightly packed pork filling. Frankly, I found myself wondering where the soup was coming from as i broke it open. As I drank out the soup, the amount seemed to defy the space inside the dumpling.
The flavor was light. The spicing appropriate. The star of the show was the craftsmanship of the dumplings, beautifully presented in a swirling fold. With two per person, the portions continued to be spot on for a filling seven course meal.
After the dumplings came the duck soup. In my head, I remember thinking it might be odd to go duck to duck from soup to main. Yet, this did not disappoint. There is somehow a balance to the pattern of pork, shrimp, pork, duck, duck and then a closing chorus of beef and seafood.
The meat was close to falling off the bone without being soggy. The star here was the broth, though. A light hint of zest and hot notes pronounced from peppers and white peppercorn. The light colored broth was a flavorful punch and I drank a lot of it. They could have brought it to me in a glass and I would have been happy.
It was a fantastic starter to the main course. The famous dish known around the world as peking duck.
Crispy skin, breast meat, cucumbers, onions and pancakes. It came out ready to be rolled one by one into the ever so thin pancakes. The pancakes were ready to stick together. It was served with a deep black hoisin sauce that was pungent yet savory. Wrap, dip and repeat.
And repeat and repeat. For those traveling to Asia, I will say duck here tastes better than the duck I’ve had before. The crispy skin has a lightly savory, salty flavor that’s rich and slightly aromatic. The meat was a fantastic texture. The vegetables were quite fresh and the right temperature to not overpower the other contents of the rolled pancake that meet in each bite.
At this point, the eating had slowed. There were bits and pieces of each course left and we slowly worked our way through them.
Finally, Minyeong asked me, “are you ready for noodles?” Noodles after a main and before dessert is as Korean as a meal gets. Bring on the Jjajangmyeong and Jjampong!
I was moving slowly at this point. My food drunk hands didn’t move fast enough to snap a photo of the noodles before they had been disturbed. Pity as they were as pretty as they were tasty. Jjajangmyeong has grown a lot on me since coming to Korea. This was a great iteration of the famous dish. The Jjampong, especially its octopus, was first-rate. Spicy in the right way, brothy in the right way, it was a nice compliment to an already good meal.
Growing up, I was taught the nature of putting on a fireworks show. Any good show should have a grand finale after the big kabooms. The grand finale is something that ties everything together. Maybe it is a few fountains burning on the ground with some bottle rockets going off in the air. The two dishes, staples of Chinese-Korean food, play an orchestra’s worth of flavors in the array of ingredients that go into them. It is a strong point to transition out of the meal.
The end, a palate cleaning dessert, came out in a glass tea cup. It was a sort of cordial of mixed ginger and pineapple, slightly warm and syrupy. With that glass, all of the flavors were washed away in the cutting freshness of the fruit and ginger. The meal was completed and soon it would be time to go.
Minyeong is enjoying learning funny English phrases. As I went to stand up, she told me, “Hey, what’s the rush? Let’s take five.” I laughed and sat back down for a while before we ventured back into the cold.
It was a meal that will not soon be forgotten. And the price was quite reasonable given the speed of the service, the portions and the taste. I’m curious to go again sometime and try a different section of the menu.
연경, 인천 중구, 차이나타운로 41.
Yeon Gyeong, 41, Chinatown-ro, Jung-gu, Incheon
Son of a Chef 
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