🍽️ Lemon Duck

Duck stir-fried with sour lemon, Zhuang-style.

Lemon Duck is a famous Zhuang-style dish from the Wuming area of Nanning, Guangxi, built on local duck and the soul ingredient of aged sour lemon. Years-old salted preserved lemons are stir-fried and braised with duck, sour scallion bulbs, chili and ginger, their fruity saltiness steaming into the meat. Glossy and tight-textured, the duck is free of gamey smell, tasting tangy, appetizing, lightly spicy and sweet on the finish, with lemon freshness cutting the richness. The dish depends on long-aged fermented lemons, the older the deeper the aroma. In Nanning it is a banquet and restaurant signature served to honored guests, best eaten with rice — a representative taste of the Zhuang region's sour-spicy, fruit-tinged cooking.