Duckfest at Pan Asian

What happens when a giant group of food bloggers and food lovers congregate in one spot?

Copious amounts of food and merry people wining and dining that would put the Roman's to shame.

It's quite fabulous really.

A couple of weeks ago I was very kindly invited by Anna (@eatnik) to the duckfest/pigfest/#sucksalad (will explain later) extravaganza (and blogger CNY party/Celeste's farewell party), organized by Anna herself and the ever active Penny (@jeroxie) and served by Aunty Li and Uncle Robert at Pan Asian on Chapel Street.

I immediately jumped at the chance to go and quickly wrangled in Brad and David to join me.

I will say it right now, but we were all absolutely spoilt rotten that night.

The opulent surroundings of Pan Asian were delicately decorated with a few additional glowing lanterns for the Chinese New Year, aren't they cute? I think they kinda look like floating aliens or something along those lines...

Pan Asian managed to fit the 60 (?!) of us in their dining room with long tables of 10, it was quite squishy, but nice and cosy as well! Brad, David and I were seated right in front of the bar. Perfect. Brad and I both started our night with a lovely glass of pinot gris each.

Once we managed to get all the bloggers seated (they tend to be such social little things), greetings, welcomes and well wishes were had as I quietly drooled over the menu in anticipation.

Each table was graced with two 'Yee Sang' salad's, almost complete, but everyone has to help out to finish it up! This is a strictly Chinese New Year dish, well not strictly, but you would never see it at any other time of year and is more commonly served up by Chinese who live in or come from Malaysia or Singapore.

Pan Asian's version doesn't stray too far from what the majority of the salad's are like, grated carrot, radish, some other Chinese vegetable my mum told me about and I forgot the name, wonton skins (for that important crunch) and pomelo. A bit of fresh salmon on the side, plum sauce, sesame oil and in the very cheery, red 'ang pao', 5 spices to sprinkle on. When my mum makes her variation at home she chops up green apple and pear to add a bit of fresh and sweet crispness.

Once all the elements have been put on the plate, the tradition is that the group grabs their chopsticks and joyously mix the salad together, raising the chopsticks (and salad) as high as possible for more prosperity (which all the Chinese love). You will often see this salad at business meals over the Chinese New Year period in China.

Pan Asian's Yee Sang was the perfect way to start the evening, light and refreshing and I love pomelo!

We had a selection of exceptionally well priced pinot gris (to go with the pork dishes) and pinot noir (to go with the duck dishes (not that we kept to it)). The Prentice pinot gris was quite interesting with it's delicate blush, almost rose tone, not typical of a pinot gris. I think this is because the grapes are crushed instead of squeezed or something of the sort....at any rate, it was so lovely, sweet and fruity.

Ah, it has been ages since I have indulged in this delicacy! Peking duck. Aunty Li added her own little twist by providing the typical condiments of cucumber and spring onion, but also pickled vegetables and of course, hoisin sauce. YUM.

The skin was also delightfully thin (thanks Billy for being my hand model!), allowing you to really get into the duck which was succulent and juicy. And crispy duck skin. Delicious! There was surprisingly quite a large serving of duck, with everyone on the table easily having at least 3 pieces each!

More wine...

Next was the duck salad with lettuce and a few duck wontons, affectionately referred to as #sucksalad on the twittersphere as when Aunty Li originally sent out the menu in the email to the invitees....well the d and s keys are very close to each other on the keyboard. You can figure it out I'm sure! The duck again was really tender, although I didn't get to sample a wonton. My only put off was that I found the presentation a little messy.

Three courses in and I was already starting to fill up which worried me considerably! Fortunately to finish up the duck dishes we were treated to a lovely, warming, piping hot duck consomme. My stomach was very appreciative for the reprieve! I very much enjoyed the flavours in this, I don't mean to be a bore again, but the duck flavour really came through!

And as I have more wine my photos get ever the more blurry and poorly composed...but onto the pork feature for the night! The crackling pork however though, was sadly not so 'crackling'. It was a bit cool by the time it had reached our table and must have been sitting out for a little while as the skin was quite chewy and hard to bite through. I definitely wanted to enjoy this more, but when I have crackling pork, I want to hear myself chewing on that skin!

I did like the two options we were given to have the pork in, either the cantonese style mantou bun or, for a little more Vietnamese twist, lettuce and vermicelli. When the skin was taken off the pork (so that I could bite through), I liked the Vietnamese twist which was like eating a rice paper roll, light and refreshing.

Bak Kwa (or I'm not sure how else you would type it out in English...), but essentially sweet barbeque pork, usually made out of pork mince and sold everywhere in Singapore and Malaysia (especially around Chinese New Year). I found it a little bit thin for my liking, barely a few millimetre's thick and I also found it a bit sweeter than I usually like. Although I am spoilt at home with my mother who does her own great home made version...

Hmmm...trying to focus a DSLR after 5 glasses of wine is kinda tricky...to finish up the savouries we had a stewed pork. I really wish I could tell you what it was like, other than a bit salty, but I was pretty tipsy at this point. :s

And just when you think you're too full and can't fit anymore in, dessert comes out. With a surprise cupcake from Sugadeaux and mandarin sorbet. There's always the second stomach somewhere right...? The cupcake was a beautiful green tea flavour with a little surprise red bean mochi hidden on the inside, how delightful! Easily one of the best green tea flavours I've ever had, with plenty of green tea, but not so much so that it's bitter, and enough sugar but again, not too much so that it's just sweet enough. Oh and that icing, so lucious!

The mandarin sorbet was also a great way to finish the night, cleanse the palette and not feel like you weighed an extra 10 kilos....

So. 8 courses later and 4 bottles of wine between 5 people, I was quite happily toppling out of the door. The duck portion of the menu probably impressed me more and defeated the pork in the 'yummy' competition, but I still enjoyed the whole meal and certainly the company!

Pan Asian

267 Chapel Street

Prahran VIC 3181

(03) 9533 7022