Angry TungLok Customer Rejects Roast Duck For Not Being “Irish” - But What’s The Deal About Irish Ducks?

When it comes to food, provenance matters. It is why some restaurants are able to charge a premium for, say, seafood from Japan. And it’s also a selling point for eateries to offer ingredients from highly-regarded sources.

One of the top suppliers of duck is Ireland’s Silver Hill farm, which exports its proprietary breed of duck known as the “wagyu of the fowl world”. The succulent duck is said to boast a meat to fat ratio that’s most ideal for roasting, making it irresistible to restaurants.

Major F&B players in Singapore that use Irish ducks for their dishes include the TungLok Group, which runs duck-centric restaurant Duckland at PLQ mall. The restaurant recently made a viral post on social media about a customer who had walked out without paying after claiming that the duck he ordered was not Irish.

Duck drama

Duckland’s March 23 post - which comes with CCTV footage of the incident - started by dramatically announcing that “today, we encountered a duck guru and we just had to share this with you”. The restaurant claims that a lone customer had walked into the restaurant and ordered half a Roast Irish Duck, which costs $35, for dining in.

The post adds: “When the duck was served, he took a quick look at it and summoned our service staff. He insisted that the duck served was not an Irish duck. Not satisfied with our service staff’s assurance that the duck he was served was an Irish duck, he summoned the manager, and insisted the same. A few minutes later, he took his belongings, stood up and walked out of the restaurant, without paying for his order.”

“We… consider this an outright sabotage”

According to Duckland, its staff had “remained patient and professional throughout the entire unfortunate incident”. It also expressed that “we are irked that half a duck has gone to waste, and consider this an outright sabotage”, and that it’s reporting the customer to the police for not paying for his food. “We share this information and CCTV footage as a warning to fellow restaurants and business owners to keep a lookout for this person,” declares Duckland.

It adds that “for the record, Duckland prides itself as a specialty restaurant serving ducks shipped direct from Ireland. All our roast ducks are prepared using Irish ducks from Ireland’s Silver Hill Farm”. Silver Hill’s exclusive Asia distributor also backs TungLok up by posting that the group indeed uses only Irish ducks in its restaurants.

How to distinguish a duck’s nationality with your naked eye

For the benefit of those who are not duck experts, we ask a duck seller about whether one can, er, tell a duck’s nationality at a glance. Hawker Melvin Chew, who runs longtime stall Jin Ji Teochew Braised Duck & Kway Chap at Chinatown Complex Food Centre, opines: “There’s no way to see [its provenance], especially if the duck is already cooked. If it’s still raw, we are able to estimate the weight or if it came frozen or fresh, but after it’s cooked, nobody will know just by looking lah.”

He surmises that there must be basic trust when a customer patronises a restaurant. “It’s just like going into a Louis Vuitton or Gucci boutique - you wouldn’t ask [if the products there] are real,” he says.

Why are Irish ducks so prized?

What sets an Irish duck apart is not its appearance, but its taste. For those who are wondering why someone would insist on eating only Irish duck, a Straits Times article sheds light on its appeal. Ducks from the family-run Silver Hill farm in County Monaghan, Ireland, basically grow up like crazy rich Asians in spacious surroundings with minimal stress. They are also fed a grain-based diet, all of which ensure that their meat remains tender and flavourful.

Each duck is characterised by its thick chest (which yields more meat) and a uniquely high fat content that can go up to 35 per cent of its weight. The copious fat in the duck melts when it’s roasted, which gives the meat its signature succulence.

It’s also the duck of choice for luminary Brit chef Heston Blumenthal of the three-Michelin-starred restaurant The Fat Duck, and famed roast duck specialises like Four Seasons Chinese Restaurant in London and London Fat Duck.

Photos: Duckland/ Irish Duck Company/ Sasha’s Fine Foods