PETALING JAYA, Feb 4 — I had been curious about The Travelling Duck since it opened in December last year. On their social media, it's been marketed as "the wagyu of duck" since they use London ducks.

I'm a big fan of roast duck in London and whenever we're there, the first stop is always Bayswater's Four Seasons restaurant to get my fix.

A perfect opportunity to try out their roast duck arose when I was scrambling for a dish for reunion dinner. My family is the type who prefer to dine at home. Our reunion dinner is a mix of home cooked items and several takeaway dishes to ease the burden of cooking.

I ordered a whole roasted London duck for RM128 for the eve of Chinese New Year. My takeaway was done efficiently too as they had set up a separate area for customers to just walk in to get their items. This didn't crowd the dine in customers at the restaurant.

From what I understand from the lady who was handling the takeaway orders, they use Irish ducks. These ducks are raised in Ireland and have a higher fat content.

This type of duck was hand picked by British chef and television personality Heston Blumenthal for his show In Search of Perfection. It's also used by top Chinese restaurants for roast duck. With its high fat ratio, it helps to keep the duck juicy when you roast it, leaving succulent meat.

The whole family agreed that the roast duck was excellent. You get tender meat and a lovely skin. It was so full of flavour that you didn't need the plum sauce or duck jus on the side. Even my sister said it was better than some special duck she had tried in Singapore.

Like all reunion dinners, it's often hard to finish the dishes since you have an abundance of choices. Hence I had leftover duck for my subsequent meals.

I had just refrigerated the duck after the reunion dinner. The next day, I was faced with the mammoth task of finishing up the leftovers.

The original idea was to braise the duck since the meat tends to harden when you don't eat it the same day it is roasted. Either that, you stir fry it with aromatics like shallots and garlic to infuse it with more flavour.

I tasted a piece straight from the refrigerator and the meat was still tender despite it being chilled. Even the flavour was lovely with just a hint of spices. I often find other roast ducks to have an overpowering five spice powder aroma which I am not a fan of. This one didn't have that unpleasant aroma.

Hence I decided to just eat it on its own. We had kept the duck; this was just in case, I needed to give it more flavour when I reheated the duck. It didn't need that at all.

Thus I repurposed it for a sandwich with a Chinese New Year twist....baby mandarin orange segments. That duck and orange pairing really worked well and I had a lovely lunch.

Take note the restaurant is serving pork-free dishes too. On the menu, they also have boneless roast duck served with pancakes and smoked duck.

The Travelling Duck, Lot CC-30 & 30A, Concourse Floor, Tropicana Gardens Mall, Persiaran Surian, Tropicana Indah, Petaling Jaya. Open: 11.30am to 9.30pm. Tel:+6011-36133063. Facebook: @thetravellingduck888 Instagram:@travellingduck888 Website: https://thetravellingduck.com.my