Peking Roast Duck and Menuhin Competition

April 4, 2012 at 10:15 PM

I’m very opinionated when it comes to food and I always suspect that French cuisine is overrated. Take for example duck confit, the unique duck flavour and natural tenderness just can’t possibly survive the amount of salt and lengthy cooking imposed on this dish and all you get is a pile of grease salty mush.

Very much like violin playing, I believe a duck can be handled with a lot lighter touch without losing its juiciness and oomph. If you’ve had Chinese roast duck, you’d know what I’m talking about. Every great dish has a story, and every great Chinese dish has a history stretches back for many centuries. Having more than 1500 years of duck roasting history in China doesn’t hurt. Partially due to the fact they are basically vegetarians, Chinese consider ducks to be much “cleaner” food than chickens or other animals and that they are “Ying food” and would keep our body cool and balanced.

What does this have to do with violin? Well, as many of you know this year’s Menuhin Competition will be held in the city of the world’s best roast duck, Beijing. Peking ducks! Imagine all the competitors and the members of the jury will be savouring them in between the competition rounds, workshops and the evening concerts. Of course, there are a lot more than just the Peking duck in Beijing. The completions will be held in the Chinese Central Conservatory of Music. The CCCoM is not an old institute (established in 1950), but its unique history adds a different touch to this prestige international violin competition: