The Thousands

There are times that you want to eat a leaf – and then there are times you want to completely and utterly annihilate an animal, until no trace remains and its very memory is erased from history. And you don’t want to wait. Hello, Ming’s Palace.There are three things that make Ming’s the superior Peking Duck experience and here they are:

1. Wander in on a whim around 7pm Monday through Thursday, I guarantee there’s nobody else in there. (Save your 55c – none of that booking upheaval necessary.) Sit down, order the duck. Within five minutes you will be sitting there chowing down, all alone, with several waiters at your immediate disposal. Savour this, for it is a vision of how a perfect society functions.

2. You get to roll your own pancakes. This may seem minor but it makes all the difference, because there’s nothing more unacceptable than a Peking pancake low on Hoisin. Drench that duck. You drench it until your hands begin to tremble.

3. You can pretend you’re dining in Flash Gordon’s nemesis’ HQ.

Sure you might get a more technically accomplished three course duck extermination elsewhere, but you won’t get the above three things. And they, my friend, are the clincher.