Our road trip has been long over due and this time we are exploring the Province of Laguna. A province with the largest lake in our country, the place of birth of our National hero, magnificent falls, hot springs, ducks and much much more. On our first stop we passed thru the town called Victoria where it is known for duck raising and popular products from duck eggs. Come join me today as we visit a roadside restaurant to get a taste of their popular fried duck.
In Search of Fried Duck
With thoughts of places that we would visit in this province, I could not decide where to start first. It would be impossible to visit them all as we only have two days to see the sights. With so many places to visit with so little time. Our plan was just to pass thru each town and just do a quick search online to see what is popular in each place. As we were travelling I saw large duck statues and I immediately knew that we reached Victoria Laguna. A town known as the Duck Raising Center of the Philippines. Products like Balut (boiled duck embryo), Itlog na maalat (salted duck egg) and duck meat dishes. What I have been searching for is a dish called Kinulob na Itik (Deep fried duck). Before we head out to search for a restaurant, we stopped at the intersection to have a closer look at the giant duck statues.
These statues are a clear statement that this town is all about ducks. Duck raising is a thriving industry in this town.
Peking duck breeding has become popular and their eggs are used to make salted eggs. The duck was imported from America and then was grown locally in this town.
The local native duck is abundant here and it would be great to visit a farm. Maybe not now as today we are just passing thru.
After taking some photos we moved on and saw this restaurant called "Tindahan ng Itlog ni Kuya Atbp (Bother's Egg Store and some other stuff). The name is a bit naughty and some would crack a smile just seeing it. Well it probably depends on the person seeing it. Let me know if you did not get the naughty joke behind it. Since we wanted fried duck, the sign itself already made me hungry.
With the streamers outside it showed all the shows from different television channels that featured this place. It seems that this restaurant is very popular. A clear sign that their food must be good.
From the entrance you could already see what they have to offer. My wife has already gone ahead of me and ordering the fried duck that I wanted so much to taste again.
Here are the duck dishes that they offer.
Peking duck ham
Balut and Penoy (the duck embryo)
Fried Spring Pecking duck
Adobong itik which is the native duck
Pancit Canton with duck
Kalderetang Itik (a popular Philippine dish that also uses goat and other types of meat)
Leche Flan (Custard desert made from duck eggs)
Pekin Kinulob ( the process is boiling it for hours with local ingredients and then deepfried)
As usual in stores and restaurants here, they add other stuff like jams and sardines.
This is salted duck egg potato chips. At first I thought it was duck eggs turned into chips and I was wondering how they did that. It is best to always read first where it clearly says Potato Chips.
On the top shelf is Atchara made from mushrooms. Atchara is like pickled vegetables and in this case pickled mushrooms. The most common Atchara is made from shredded unripe papaya and this is the first time I have seen made from mushrooms. You may ask how does it taste and I could only answer you with "Limited Budget" lol.
A lot more other stuff are sold behind the counter and some can also be purchased in other stores. The usual chicharon (pork rinds), sweets and other goodies.
The popular TV shows from three popular television networks, and celebrities who visited this restaurant.
We had our duck on the go and after waiting for less than 10 minutes our duck was ready. I could not wait and wanted to open it up and have a quick taste. My wife kept telling me to wait, but I kept on and when I tried to take a piece. I was in for a surprise as it was extremely hot. I could not take a piece off it and I eventually wrapped it back up.
The aroma was very inviting and I could smell some ingredients that is very familiar. The scent was like ginger and and a hint of lemon grass. I wish I asked if we could see how it was prepared. I was a bit hesitant to ask as unlike the big TV networks that visited here, I'm just an amateur blogger who probably no one know about in our country yet.
We also bought a dozen salted duck eggs. It is best served with freshly sliced tomatoes, eaten for breakfast with fried rice and some fried dried fish.
Cars were stopping by and customers were constantly coming in and out of the place. We got our order and I still wanted to have a look around the place before we leave.
Going outside I saw this sign and was surprised that they also sold Pekin duck. Hold on that thought I know it is spelled Pecking duck and I'm pretty sure of it. Anyway they have it spelled that way on their signs and sometimes during adaptation spellings change and even pronunciation.
A pair costs 2,500 pesos which is around $47.00 and if we have a big place it would be nice to have them as pets.
Here are my kids posing beside the giant egg. I was happy that we found what we were looking for and can't wait to have a taste of the fried duck.
Finally we got to the place we were staying at and the duck is served. The taste was amazing and the skin was crispy, but the meat was very tender. I was correct with the ginger, but the lemon grass I cannot really be sure. I will search for a recipe and will try to make my own version, but with chicken instead. Duck is not very common where we live, but if we will talk about seafood that is a different story.
Thanks for joining me today and I hope to get back to this town. We will go deeper and search out the farms, see how the duck eggs are processed and share more about this place. That will be the plan one of these days that will surely be an educating experience.
Hope to see you again soon and have a pleasant evening.
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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://watersnake101.vornix.blog/2018/08/30/in-search-of-fried-duck/