Peking duck

Peking Duck is a famous duck dish from Beijing that has been prepared since the imperial era. The meat is prized for its thin, crisp skin, with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat, sliced in front of the diners by the cook. Ducks bred specially for the dish are slaughtered after 65 days and seasoned before being roasted in a closed or hung oven. The meat is eaten with scallion, cucumber and sweet bean sauce with pancakes rolled around the fillings. Sometimes pickled radish is also inside, and other sauces (like hoisin sauce) can be used. In 2012, The Huffington Post ranked Peking duck 1st in list of "10 Foods Around The World To Try Before You Die".

History

Duck has been roasted in China since the Southern and Northern Dynasties. A variation of roast duck was prepared for the Emperor of China in the Yuan Dynasty. The dish, originally named "Shaoyazi" (燒鴨子), was mentioned in the Complete Recipes for Dishes and Beverages (飲膳正要) manual in 1330 by Hu Sihui (忽思慧), an inspector of the imperial kitchen. The Peking Roast Duck that came to be associated with the term was fully developed during the later Ming Dynasty, and by then, Peking Duck was one of the main dishes on imperial court menus. The first restaurant specialising in Peking Duck, Bianyifang, was established in the Xianyukou, Qianmen area of Beijing in 1416.

Peking Duk

Peking Duk are an Australian electronic music duo made up of disc jockey and music producers Adam Hyde and Reuben Styles. The pair first garnered attention in 2012 with the release of a Passion Pit bootleg remix. Their biggest hit "High" reached 5 on the ARIA Singles Chart, achieved a triple platinum certification and won the ARIA Award for Best Dance Release with music producer James Wilton Best Dance Release at the ARIA Music Awards of 2014.

Background

Peking Duk was formed in 2010 in Canberra, Australia by Adam Hyde and Reuben Styles, both from suburbs of inner northern Canberra. Previously, Styles had played bass in a local band called Rubycon, and Hyde had performed as an MC in local stellar hip hop groups.

Upon the release of their Passion bootleg remix in May 2012, the pair gained attention from music blogs. Since then they have released two singles, both of which have hit number one on the ARIA Club Chart & featured in the Australian Single Charts. They have played numerous shows around Australia, Asia and North America, and their music has been supported by artists such as Tiesto, Steve Aoki and A-Trak.

Beijing

Beijing is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world.

Its total population in 2013 was 21,150,000. The city proper is the 2nd most populous in the world. The metropolis, located in northern China, is governed as a direct-controlled municipality under the national government with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts. Beijing Municipality is surrounded by Hebei Province with the exception of neighboring Tianjin Municipality to the southeast; together the three divisions form the Jingjinji metropolitan region and the national capital region of China.

Beijing is the second largest Chinese city by urban population after Shanghai and is the nation's political, cultural and educational center. It is home to the headquarters of most of China's largest state-owned companies, and is a major hub for the national highway, expressway, railway, and high-speed rail networks. The Beijing Capital International Airport is the second busiest in the world by passenger traffic.

Duck

Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the waterfowl family Anatidae, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the family Anatidae; they do not represent a monophyletic group (the group of all descendants of a single common ancestral species) but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered ducks. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water.

Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots.

Etymology

The word duck comes from Old English *dūce "diver", a derivative of the verb *dūcan "to duck, bend down low as if to get under something, or dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending; compare with Dutch duiken and German tauchen "to dive".

This word replaced Old English ened/ænid "duck", possibly to avoid confusion with other Old English words, like ende "end" with similar forms. Other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck", for example, Dutch eend "duck" and German Ente "duck". The word ened/ænid was inherited from Proto-Indo-European; compare: Latin anas "duck", Lithuanian ántis "duck", Ancient Greek nēssa/nētta (νῆσσα, νῆττα) "duck", and Sanskrit ātí "water bird", among others.

Say My Name

"Say My Name" is a song by R&B American recording group Destiny's Child. It was written by band members Beyoncé Knowles, LeToya Luckett, LaTavia Roberson and Kelly Rowland along with LaShawn Daniels, Fred Jerkins III and Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins for their second album The Writing's on the Wall (1999), featuring production by the latter.

The song was the third single from the album and marked the introduction of the band's second lineup featuring newly added members Michelle Williams and Farrah Franklin. The single is the most successful of the four releases from the album and is considered to be one of their signature songs.

A critical success, "Say My Name" won two Grammy Awards at the 2001 ceremony, for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best R&B Song, while also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The song's music video won the 2000 MTV Video Music Award for Best R&B Video. It also captured a Soul Train Lady of Soul Award for Best R&B/Soul Single, Group, Band or Duo along with a BMI Pop Award for Most Played Song.