DaDong in Manhattan

choi

Florence Fabricant, A Peek at DaDong, A Palatial Home for Peking Duck; The sprawling restaurant, which seats 440, is the first branch outside China. New York Times, Nov 29, 2017 (in the weekly Food section).
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/ ... g-duck-midtown.html
("scheduled to open Dec. 11 in an office tower across from Bryant Park. * * * A few weeks ago, within the first two hours of becoming available, 2,500 reservations were booked through February, overloading the phone lines")

My comment:
(a)
(i) Bryant Park
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryant_Park

Quote:

"It is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. Although technically the Main Branch of the New York Public Library is located within the park, effectively it forms the park's functional eastern boundary, making Sixth Avenue the park's primary entrance. [Search Google Maps with the park, and you will know what it means.]

"The first park at this site opened in 1847 as Reservoir Square. It was named after its neighbor, the Croton Distributing Reservoir. * * * In 1884, Reservoir Square was renamed Bryant Park, to honor the New York Evening Post [founded in 1801; a new owner changed its name to New York Post in 1934] editor and abolitionist William Cullen Bryant.

(ii) The English and Irish surname Bryan (Bryant being a variant) originated from Celtic personal name Brian, which also gave rise to the Irish surname O'Brien (meaning: child of Brian).

(b) "the chef Dong Zhenxiang 董振祥, the [DaDong 大董集团; 1985- ] chain's owner and founder"
(c) "In New York, it joins Chinese restaurants, like Tang Hotpot [唐鍋; it uses traditional Chinese] and Chinese Tuxedo 探花楼, that have been departing from the norm with less traditional menus and décor"

(d) "The signature roast duck ($98 whole, $58 half), from a breed that Mr Zhenxiang [sic; the reviewer is confused about which is surname] developed over two years with Maple Leaf Farms in Indiana, is served with pancakes, buns, sauces, julienne vegetables, sugar and garlic. It is meant to be eaten four ways, with different ingredient combinations. The meat is sliced paper-thin. (The restaurant gets an estimated 96 slices from a single duck.) But unlike at the Chinese locations, the dish does not come with a plate of duck innards and feet, nor is it possible to order duck webs with mustard sauce 芥末鸭掌.
(i) julienne (n; French, short for potage à la julienne, probably from Julienne woman's name): "a : a preparation or garnish of food that has been cut into thin strips  <a julienne of leek>"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/julienne

* potage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potage
(ii) julienne (etymology: "[female given name] julienne, from [male] given name Jules or Julien")
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/julienne#English
(photo)
* Jules is French form of Latin Julius; Julius Caesar (the spelling in both Latin and English) is Jules César in french.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules
* Julian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian
(in France (as Julien); From the Roman name Iulianus, which was derived from Julius)

(e)
(i) I left Taiwan in 1984. Prior to that, nobody in Taiwan had any idea what a Peking duck looked, much less tasted, like.
(ii) In my life, I ate it only once, at Chef Chang's House 全聚德鴨子樓 (in traditional Chinese; 1980-2010; unrelated to the 北京 全聚德) located at Brookline, Massachusetts. I was treated by a Japanese couple who was returning to Japan, the cost was just above $50, but I can not recall whether it was a whole or half duck.