While we've tried several Chinese restaurants here in San Francisco, none of them have so far come up to the standard set by places like Zen, at the Heathrow Hilton.
I know it's illogical to demand that food is prepared to an English specification - heaven knows it's unlikely to be that way in Shanghai or Beijing - but as long as the chefs hope to sell their Chinese food in Western countries, and westerners want to buy that food, we may as well have it prepared the way we want.
Which brings me to one of our favorites - Beijing Duck - which we been unable to find here the way we did in the UK.
Well, not until now.
Region is a classy place, specializing in Beijing style Chinese fare. And that means crispy Beijing Duck, cooked with the right spices and sauces, and the right thin pancakes. I say "the right" spices, sauces, and pancakes because the last time we had the dish was in Hong Kong, after a l-o-n-g and tiring flight from the US. To say that meal was a disappointment would be an understatement. It came as a slab of cold, fatty bird, that seemed to have had only a fleeting relationship with any acceptable method of cooking, and - to top it all - with overly fluffy pancakes. I'm sure the good people of Hong Kong are usually delighted with this preparation, but it left our table untouched, and us still famished.
There was no such disappointment last night. Region is a perfect place for a date, specially if like me, your date loves her duck.
The cocktails were equally classy. To tell the truth, the duck kind of out-performed the other menu items. We had the Crispy shrimp and pork Chao Zhou rolls, Grass fed Piedmontese cubed filet mignon, red onions, string bean and beech mushroom, and the Basil prawns with oyster mushrooms, green beans, eggplant and bell pepper. They were all fine, but I wouldn't be as fulsome with the praise if we hadn't first had the duck.
Duck, duck, duck, duck, and duck. I'm sorry to go on about the duck. But it was perfect.
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