Blood Duck

Blood Duck

　　Blood Duck is a traditional famous dish from Hunan. The method involves cutting the duck meat into many small pieces, placing them in a pot to first evaporate the moisture, then transferring them to a plate.

Then, add a generous amount of oil to the pot, fry old ginger and minced garlic, and add some chili powder to make chili oil—be careful not to burn the chilies. Next, put the previously moisture-evaporated duck meat back into the pot and stir-fry. During the stir-frying process, you can cover and simmer for a few minutes, then continue stir-frying. Once the duck meat is cooked, add prepared baby ginger (or peanuts or beans), chili peppers, aromatic powder, sweet rice wine, and other ingredients, and continue stir-frying until these seasonings are cooked. When you're almost ready to serve, add freshly chopped garlic or scallions and stir briefly, then it’s time to add the duck blood. The duck blood should be fresh, collected at the time of slaughtering—the flowing blood, not frozen blood clots. Pour in the duck blood and stir-fry for 1–2 minutes, mixing well until the blood is cooked. Cooked duck blood turns black, and then you can serve the dish.

Blood Duck is best enjoyed with ice-cold beer. It’s truly a clash of fire and ice—the searing heat is extinguished by a waterfall of cold, leaving wisps of steam lingering in the heart, an indescribable sensation of exhilaration. Of course, if you don’t drink alcohol, pairing it with a bowl of pork rib and radish soup works just as well. In this world, the interplay of warmth and coolness, yin and yang, movement and stillness, all complement each other—it’s a realm, the pinnacle of life. If it’s winter or early spring and the temperature is low, pairing it with homemade sweet potato liquor can help ward off the chill, warming you up from head to toe and stirring up a surge of bold spirit. Eating Blood Duck is an outpouring of deep-seated emotion between friends who haven’t seen each other in ages—wild, unrestrained, fiery and intense. It’s also like the bold winds of the Chu region in the land of Xiaoxiang, rising suddenly in a fierce storm, stirring heroic sentiments and filling one with unbridled vigor.

The sauce from the Blood Duck is equally delightful. At the end of the meal, ask the host for a bowl of rice, mix it with the sauce, pick out the chilies, and enjoy. After one bowl, your appetite will be wide open—and most guests won’t leave without having a second bowl. The aroma of the dish, the satisfaction of the drink, the fullness of the meal—nowadays, banquets are often just social obligations, but to have something as memorable as eating Blood Duck, truly etched in your memory, isn’t that incredibly precious?