When we entertain at home, we take for granted that we all partake in the same dishes, prepared in portions large enough to share. So isn’t it a bit odd, in this age of dining out as entertainment, for friends to gather at a restaurant and each order a different meal? It’s a very American way of eating, and it embodies those all-American values of freedom and rugged individualism—we each get what we want, without compromise.
But in other culinary cultures around the world, the gastronomical high points are dishes made for sharing: paella from Spain, Peking duck from China, and from Vietnam, a whole repertoire of dishes cooked at the table.
Peking duck is a rarity on Chinese restaurant menus, probably because it is so much trouble to prepare. One classic method, for example, involves inflating the bird carcass with a bicycle pump, then air-drying it for a day before roasting. It’s no surprise, then, that restaurants usually require customers to order a whole bird—enough to feed four—at least a day in advance. Before serving, the duck is traditionally carved into three courses: the skin, served with pancakes; the meat, stir-fried with vegetables; and the bones, either made into soup or sent home with the customer to use in homemade soup.
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I don’t know what shortcuts the chefs at Yummy use in their delicious version of this classic dish, but they offer a half-duck served as dinner in two courses, which can be ordered without advance reservations. (Whole ducks are served in three courses.) The half-duck makes an ample dinner for two, and at $17.95, it’s a steal.
The centerpiece of any Peking duck dinner is the crisp, flavorful skin and the fat pancakes of steamed dough. You brush the pancakes lightly with sweet hoisin paste, wedge morsels of skin and meat between the folds of the pancake, add a few shreds of scallion, and enjoy.
For the second course, Yummy offers a choice: a soup made with the chopped-up duck minus its skin, along with tofu and Chinese cabbage; or a stir-fry of boneless duck meat with Chinese greens. I strongly recommend the stir-fry, which puts the flavorful meat to better use—but note that ordering a whole duck gets you both courses.
Yummy offers another Chinese gastronomic specialty made for sharing: dim sum served from carts, seven days a week, in dozens of different varieties ranging from pork and shrimp dumplings to little plates of garlicky spare ribs or curried squid. You can order these all by yourself, of course, but the more companions you bring along, the more dishes you can sample.
Paella is Spain’s most celebrated culinary specialty, a garnished dish of saffron rice named after the flat-bottomed pan in which it’s prepared. It originated in Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast, and the official recipe, approved by the Head Chef’s Club of the Region of Valencia, is made with chicken, snails, and lima beans. But as paella’s popularity has spread, so have the variations. Locally Babalu, El Meson, Conga and La Bodega all offer versions—typically a paella a la valenciana, which combines meat and seafood, and most also offer an all-seafood paella marinera.
Babalu’s paella valenciana, made with chicken, mussels, clams, shrimp, and lobster, is a striking presentation: it arrives at table with a split lobster tail and a crisp-fried slice of plantain standing upright in a savory and aromatic bed of saffron rice. The quantities of mussels, shrimp, and clams are ample (and at $35.99 per person, including a salad, they should be). Babalu’s other attractions include a full bar, an extensive wine list strong on selections from Spain and Latin America, and a sexy nightclub ambiance that gets hotter as the night goes on. As we finished dinner there recently, the Monday-night crowd was just warming up for the weekly salsa competition, which the hostess explained with enthusiastic rotations of her hips.
If the $150 a plate gastronomic