Eight-Treasure Duck

Eight-Treasure Duck

　　is a signature dish of the Laobanzhuang Restaurant at Shanghai’s City God Temple. Established in the second year of the Guangxu reign (1876), this restaurant is renowned for its authentic Shanghainese cuisine. The “Eight-Treasure Duck” dates back to the Qing Dynasty, and the 1887 revised edition of *Shanghai Travel Notes: Taverns* records that this dish was a famous offering at Shanghainese Su-style restaurants. It is made by deboning a meat duck and stuffing it with filling before steaming.

　　In the mid-1930s, Laobanzhuang, following a customer’s suggestion, went to Dahongyun Restaurant to study and replicate their version of the “Eight-Treasure Duck.” Their method differs slightly from the Su-style technique and places greater emphasis on cooking with intense heat. They use an unboned whole duck, stuffed with eight ingredients such as chestnuts, chicken gizzard, and ham, then steam it until tender. The resulting dish is richly aromatic, deliciously savory, and highly popular with customers—soon gaining fame throughout the city. For decades, it has been beloved by both domestic and international diners.

　　Features: Made by steaming a plump duck stuffed with eight ingredients. The finished dish has a glossy red hue, an intact shape, tender and falling-off-the-bone duck meat, rich umami flavors, and a savory, juicy sauce.

　　Preparation: Select a plump and tender duck, slaughter and clean it, split the back, trim the feet, blanch in boiling water, then remove, rinse, and drain. Brush the duck with soy sauce. Dice bamboo shoots, pork, ham, chestnuts, chicken gizzard, shiitake mushrooms, lotus seeds, dried shrimp, and mix with glutinous rice in a bowl. Add Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, sugar, and MSG, stir into a filling. Stuff the mixture inside the duck, place it breast-side down in a steamer, and steam for three to four hours until the meat is very tender. Remove and rest upside-down on a serving plate. Heat a pan, add lard, quickly sear shrimp until cooked, then remove. Leave a little oil in the pan, add bamboo shoot slices and mushroom slices, pour in a bit of soy sauce and some of the steamed duck juice, bring to a boil, add the shrimp and cooked green peas, thicken lightly with cornstarch slurry, drizzle with lard, and pour the sauce over the duck to serve.