Thai-Style Duck Bites

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You like to eat duck right?

And Thai food? You like Thai food too, right?

Oh yeah baby, you know you do...

And I do too.

Heck yea, I do.

And what else do we all love?

That's right...cocktail foods.

Small bites of salty-tangy-sweet-sour-puckery-blistering that make that Friday night-end-of-the-work-week bev just so much more enjoyable.

Or, at least, foods that makes it easy to have something resembling dinner while standing up at a function...

Which leads me to this. This which is (yet another) cocktail food you simply must try.

I fully admit that I didn't come up with this play on Tom Yum Goong soup, but once I heard of it, I did make it, and I did tweak it and I did eat it (and then eat some more, and well, you get the idea) and lo, it was tasty. Really tasty.


Rich, dense duck meat paired with fragrant Thai basil, cooling cucumber, sour lime zest and a touch of soy, it was hard to just eat one (which, I didnt. I ate more like, oh, twenty).

Trust me, its worth making. So try it yourself, and enjoy!

Meat from one duck (I bought a fully cooked Peking duck in Thai Town), shredded

5 teaspoons soy sauce

Zest and juice of two small limes

2 kaffir lime leaves, minced (optional)

1 teaspoon grated ginger

1 small bunch of Thai basil, chopped fine

Sugar as needed

2 or 3 English (hothouse) cucumbers to serve

In a medium bowl, stir together the soy, lime juice, lime zest, kaffir (if using) and ginger. Taste and add sugar if you want it less tart. Add the meat and toss to coat. Let marinate for 15 minutes at room temperature.

Meanwhile, slice the cucumbers into rounds, or - as I did - make them into cups, by using a melon baller to scoop out some of the seeds from a 1/2 inch piece that was cut flat on one side and at an angle on the other (see photo above).

Toss the basil with the duck and divide the mixture onto the cucumber rounds. There should be enough for about 40 servings.

Serve room temperature.

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Thai Basil is a major ingredient in many Thai dishes. It is also known as Sweet Basil and its aroma is reminiscent of anise or liquorice when fresh, cooked of fried. It is easily confused with Holy Basil which has a completely different aroma. - Wikipedia

As of a 2006 poll, there were 750 Thai restaurants in the UK - London had 37%, Home Counties, 22% and Scotland/Wales 6%. Comparatively there are 3500 Chinese restaurants and 50 Vietnamese.

Prince Charles suggested Tuesday on a visit to the United Arab Emirates that banning McDonald's was crucial for improving people's diets. Charles made the comments while visiting the Imperial College London Diabetes Center in Abu Dhabi for the launch of a public health campaign, The Press Association reported. 'Have you got anywhere with McDonald's? Have you tried getting it banned? That's the key,' Charles was quoted as asking one of the center's nutritionists. – Associated Press