Spicy Jumping Duck? A Creative Spring "Duck" Set Menu by a 20-Year Veteran Chef

▲A full duck cuisine set featuring “grilled, braised, stewed, and stir-fried” flavors, all in one delightful bite. (Photo / Provided by Regent Taipei)

Travel Center / Taipei Report

“Outside the bamboo a couple of peach blossoms, / The spring river, the duck knows first it’s warm.” This poem by Su Shi adds a touch of literary charm to duck dishes, which are available all year round, making them even more delightful in spring. Moreover, duck meat, known for its nourishing and cooling properties, seems even more fitting to enjoy in late spring and early summer when liver heat tends to flare up.

Regent Taipei’s Sichuan and Cantonese cuisine restaurant, Regent Court, in tune with the season, is inviting Chef Long Weixing—the mastermind behind the star Peking duck dishes at Lucheng Regent Hotel—from now until April 30 to launch the “Spring Duck Set Menu.” Using the concept of “one duck, many ways,” this six-course set includes three classic dishes: Double Delight Peking Duck, Spicy Bamboo Skewer Shark’s Fin, and Traditional Old-Fire Duck Soup Rice Noodles; two creative dishes: Crispy Duck Bite and Spicy Jumping Duck; and a nearly lost art dish: Nostalgic Duck Feet Pack. Guests can savor the diverse flavors of duck cuisine.

The ducks used in the “Spring Duck Set Menu” come from Yilan’s Cherry Ducks, adhering to strict quality control standards. Only ducks aged 75 days and weighing about 2.2 kg are selected—just the right size, with a moderate fat layer and perfectly tender meat. Raised by the stream with flowing water, these Cherry Ducks drink sweet stream water and eat natural grains every day. The pure, unpolluted breeding environment produces premium-quality meat that is tender in texture and rich in fat. Chef Long, drawing on 20 years of experience in roasted and cured meats, combines the flavors of classic dishes with creative twists, presenting six exquisite duck dishes including grilled, braised, stewed, and stir-fried options. The detailed menu is as follows:

Crispy Duck Bite
Inspired by the popular classic dish from “Dream of the Red Chamber”—“Duck Meat Sushi”—Chef Long uses his skilled knife techniques to slice 2x2.5 cm pieces of crispy duck skin. He then pairs them with cheddar cheese slices and a Thai sweet and sour sauce, all layered on a crispy rice crust to create the “Crispy Duck Bite,” a dish with rich layers of texture, combining crunchiness and richness in one bite.

Spicy Bamboo Skewer Shark’s Fin (10 skewers)
The duck wings are first deep-fried, then simmered in a braising liquid seasoned with bay leaves, sand ginger, luohanguo (monk fruit), licorice, and soy sauce. After heating and simmering, they are left to marinate for an hour. Before serving, they are tossed with Sichuan spicy aromatic oil to enhance the flavor and color. With creative flair, the chef ties the duck wings with green onions and presents them upright in a serving vessel, resulting in a visually stunning and flavorful premium duck dish.


▲Left: The Crispy Duck Bite draws inspiration from the popular classic dish “Duck Meat Sushi” from Dream of the Red Chamber, offering rich layers of texture. Right: The Spicy Bamboo Skewer Shark’s Fin involves deep-frying the duck wings and simmering them in a special seasoning broth for an hour to absorb the flavors. (Photo / Provided by Regent Taipei)

Spicy Jumping Duck
With bold creativity and a Sichuan culinary approach, the chef cuts fresh duck breast into bite-sized pieces, marinates them for about an hour with pepper, scallions, and salt, then coats them in potato starch and deep-fries them until the skin turns golden and crispy. Finally, he sprinkles a vibrant, aromatic, spicy powder on top, creating a unique flavor that is salty, savory, spicy, with a crispy exterior and tender, juicy interior.

Traditional Old-Fire Duck Soup Rice Noodles
The chef uses a rich broth simmered for 10 hours from old hen, pork thigh, and Jinhua ham as the base. He then adds sweet Chinese cabbage and fragrant roasted duck carcass to braise together, finishing with 100% pure Laifengmi (a type of rice) handmade rice noodles to create this thick, mellow, and aromatic soup.

Nostalgic Duck Feet Pack
This nostalgic classic dish stems from Chef Long’s childhood memories: “When I was an apprentice, I often saw the chefs making it, but because the method is really complicated and the cooking process is time-consuming, gradually no chefs wanted to make it anymore.” Legend has it that the “Duck Feet Pack” originated in Xuancheng (now Xuancheng City), a small town in the northern ancient Huizhou region during the Ming and Qing dynasties. As Huizhou merchants rose to prominence, people traveled far and wide for business. Due to the long journeys, these merchants would bring their own homemade cured snacks to stave off hunger along the way. The “Duck Feet Pack,” made with high-calorie ingredients like duck feet, fatty pork, and duck liver, became famous by word of mouth. Along with Shuiyang Duck Wings and Shuiyang Liver, it is hailed as one of the “Three Treasures of Shuiyang Town” in Xuancheng’s Shuiyang District.

To make the “Duck Feet Pack,” first the part of the duck foot near the sole is selected, marinated in spices such as rock sugar, cinnamon leaves, cloves, and luohanguo for about half an hour. It is then taken out, deboned, and stuffed with Matsusaka-style char siu, duck breast, and liver sausage. The whole thing is tied into a hoof shape with duck intestines, marinated in a specially blended sauce of salt, sugar, and soy sauce for about 30 minutes, then baked in an oven over low heat for about 30 minutes. It needs constant monitoring to ensure even and beautiful browning on all sides. After baking, a syrup made from maltose and regular sugar is poured over the top to complete this classic, labor-intensive dish with a striking red color, enticing aroma, and a taste that is salty, savory, sweet, and delicious.


▲Left: The Traditional Old-Fire Duck Soup Rice Noodles uses a broth simmered for 10 hours from old hen, pork thigh, and Jinhua ham, resulting in a thick, mellow, and aromatic soup. Right: The Nostalgic Duck Feet Pack, due to its complex preparation, is rarely made by roast duck chefs nowadays. (Photo / Provided by Regent Taipei)

Double Delight Peking Duck (Scallion Roll / Whole Wheat Roll)
Unlike the Peking duck method, Chef Long follows the traditional Cantonese technique. He cleans the duck, stuffs it with star anise, ginger, and scallions inside the cavity to inflate it, then blanches it in hot water to tighten the skin. Next, he brushes on a sugar skin glaze made from vinegar, maltose, and Honglu wine, hangs it to air-dry for eight hours, and then roasts it in a large hanging oven for 50 minutes until the skin turns glossy, crispy, and golden. Chef Long emphasizes: “Once the duck comes out of the oven, it must be served within ten minutes, otherwise the glossy, tight skin and the crispy yet non-greasy texture will be lost.” This is also the origin of his famous saying, “The duck doesn’t wait, the people wait for the duck.”

Once the duck is roasted, the chef precisely slices it into 12 pieces with a 2:1 ratio of skin to meat. These are wrapped in specially made whole wheat flatbread and scallion pancakes, with the latter also including sweet, peeled cucumbers from Yilan’s Sanxing region for added texture. Notably, the dipping sauce is not the usual sweet bean sauce, but a specially blended suckling pig sauce made from sesame paste, peanut butter, oyster sauce, and fermented black beans. It has a delicate texture and even more aromatic flavor.

The price for the above set menu, which serves four to six people, is NT$3,200. (Price includes a 10% service charge, and advance reservation one day prior is required.)