Where to find the best duck preparations in Los Angeles

“To do duck, you must be really disciplined, how to cut your social life,” says Chartchai Vongsanikul. “Period.”

Vongsanikul, who goes for chef Bob, calls me to his semi-days to talk about Duck. He is the chef of Toasted Duck of Pa Ord, a small restaurant in a shopping center in the Thai city that specializes in tense roasted duck and bright leather. His is the face you see among the row of hanging ducks behind the counter in the restaurant. He lives and breathes duck, spending his days jumping, drying, roasting and cutting him, even contemplating the duck when he is not in the kitchen.

“Today is my day off, but I have to enter and prepare the ducks,” he says. “So I really don't have a day off. If you're going to do duck, you should think twice.”

About 15 years ago, during a return trip to Thailand from Los Angeles, Vongsanikul's father asked him to take care of the Patos Restaurant he had opened in Bangkok. The restaurant served a roast kunming style duck, a variation of Pekín duck in China. Vongsanikul ended up spending years preparing ducks for the restaurant, adjusting the preparation and presentation to something that believed would attract the Thai palates.

“There was a lot of proof and error to bring taste to something for the Thai,” he says.

At the beginning of 2024, he had a meeting in Bangkok with Lawan Bhanduram, the woman behind almost a dozen restaurants in Los Angeles, including Pa Ord Noodle. Actually, she had worked for her for a short time before, buying products for her restaurants.

“She was semi-stirred at that time,” he says. “I said, come on, let's do this. I have the duck, you have your name and your brand.”

The couple returned to Los Angeles and opened roasted duck by Pa Ord shortly after.

Vongsanikul dries their ducks for a couple of hours, then immerses them in hot water to press the skin. Paint the ducks with honey, then let them dry in the air for 24 hours. Ducks are roasted, a dozen at the same time, what he calls “the correct temperature” for an hour.

The duck meat shines on the plate, arranged in a small punch of skin -coated tiles. The skin is a deep golden brown, with the thinner layer of fat underneath. He clings to the duck, delicate and wrinkled, with a fleeting crunch that melts only seconds after the tongue hits you. The meat is succulent and tender, saturated in its own juices and fats.

The special roast duck for one in the roasted duck of Pa Ord in the Thai city. The set comes with its choice of rice or jade noodles and two sauces.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

Vongsanikul suggests trying the duck alone, before trying the two sauces that accompany it. One is a dark soybean sauce with vinegar and jalapeños in slices. The other is a fortified sauce with star anise, cinnamon, soy and sugar sauce. It is warm and a little sweet.

You can ask for the duck that swings in the exclusive soup of Bhanduram ($ 17), the reddish broth with the flavors of the duck. Or swim in curry ($ 17) or above a salad ($ 17). But for the duck to the tenth power, there is the roasted duck special, for one ($ 25) or two ($ 35), served with sliced ​​meat and rice or jade noodles.

Cut Beverly Hills

The entire presentation of the duck of Cut Beverly Hills comes with a unique version of Shepherd's cake.

(Glee Digital Media)

In Cut Beverly Hills, Drew Rosenberg is so fanatic of his duck.

“It's like my baby,” he says.

The chef began to serve an entire duck preparation ($ 135) in the restaurant about six months ago, hoping to attract diners with offerings outside the Steak Steak program.

“Everyone loves the duck, everyone agaches,” says Rosenberg. “I wanted to be a bit different with the way we are presenting it.”

Rosenberg obtains her ducks from Mary's Farm in California and dry the birds for 14 days. Laches the breasts with honey and a mixture of spices that includes coriander, black pepper, powder plum and grains of paradise. It is served in slices, the skin so crispy that crepits, each piece its own source of dissolved pleasure. They swim in a rich seasonal with duck drips, brown butter and any product that is in season. Earlier this year, there was a luxurious cranberry jus with liquor casis and puree of fresh mountain blueberry. It was the type of sauce that has the plate. Now there is a Cherry Just market with the cherries of Murray Family Farms.

On the side there is a play in Shepherd's cake, making the legs during the night, confiring the meat and bending it in a reduced Jerez wine that offers the same luxurious thrust as a slab of Foie Gras. Tips above the upper part there are Yukon gold puree and Japanese purple potatoes. The first is light and creamy, the last one as the beaten velvet.

The entire duck presented a unique version of Shepherd's cake at Cut Beverly Hills.

(Glee Digital Media)

Rosenberg is also making bao buns with the rendered duck fat.

“I just wanted to get the congestion from the plate and make it fun to eat,” he says.

It may be the duck presentation of the entire most convincing duck in the city, but Rosenberg says it has been a difficult sale. That is understandable with the other heavyweight proteins in the menu that compete for the attention of diners.

“I thought about removing it from the menu because it is not easy to sell,” he says. “Although we recently had a celebrity with his wife, and each ordered his own ducks five days. He made me very happy.”

Rosenberg usually only eight ducks a week, and the anticipated order is encouraged. Avoid disappointment of the duck. Call in advance.

OLLE KITCHEN KITCHEN

When you enter OLLE, the restaurant at the base of Oxford Palace Hotel in Koreatown, smoke columns of the tables. The aroma hanging in the air is woody and sweet, such as the treatment room in a five -star spa.

What you smell is not marinated ribs or pork bacon caramelizing on a grill. It is a smoked duck, steamed in beautiful, pale and hinoki wooden boxes.

The smoky duck in the Korean Koreatown cuisine is served in an Hinoki wooden box.

(Lily Kim)

“I import 20 sets from Caja Hinoki de Korea,” says owner Eugene Chun. “It cost me $ 10,000.”

For Chun, it was a reasonable price to pay for the exclusive dish of the restaurant, a medium smoked duck presented as a treasure.

During a trip to Seoul last year, Chun fell in love with the smoked duck found in restaurants throughout the Gangnam district. Then he looked for a duck farm in Pyeongtaek, a city about 45 miles south of Seoul.

“I discovered this duck farm where they marin and smoke the ducks for six hours with a little apple and herbs,” he says. “Almost at the same time, I learned about Hinoki Wood, and that's why I started this business.”

Chun, who directed a noise restaurant in Koreatown called Wonsan Myunok at that time, sold the restaurant and changed his focus on smoked duck. He opened OLLE, named for the narrow roads found throughout Jeju island in Korea, in January.

The ducks arrive whole and smoked from the farm. They are cut to order, approximately half duck in each set ($ 89), the pieces are deployed in one of the Hinoki boxes. A server places a small burner on the table, covered with a hot water metal tray. The box is placed on the top and is told to wait a few minutes while the vape duck.

The brief wait accelerates through a Banchan tray as great as the duck itself. Chun's wife, Kristy, prepares 15 to 18 dishes every morning, changing the selections almost daily. Recently, there were four varieties of Kimchi, including Baby Bok Choy; Radish in pickle; Thick potato salad; marinated knob leaves; bean outbreaks; seaweed noodles; Fried zucchini rounds; a vegetable pancake; and marinated algae.

The smoked duck in Hinoki wood from the Korean Koreatown Korean kitchen.

(Lily Kim)

Once the duck accumulates for two or three minutes, the server shows the elimination of the lid, and the smoke wraps the table in delicate and curizers.

Each piece is on fat tape and the thinner layer of skin. Instead of creaking, there is an intense smoke flavor that is just overwhelming and a density similar to ham. Hickory and Applewood meat flavors, with citrus notes and hinoki pine. The mound of rice in the middle collects the same sweet and smoked taste, and you build alternative snacks of duck, rice and the various Banchan to cut the wealth.

“Hinoki's aroma makes it better,” says Chun. “And makes people more comfortable and relaxed.”

I cannot say that the hours following the duck of that day were more relaxed, but I was happy, and I smelled as if I had been in the spa and a barbecue.