Mark Morodomi: Peanut Duck

When a popular Chinese restaurant in Oakland closed recently, Mark Morodomi is left with warm memories of family and a dish rarely served anymore.

When I heard that the Golden Peacock restaurant in Oakland had permanently closed in December, I knew this was also the end of my Peanut Duck.

After 50 years, the owner of the restaurant, Lily Leung, was finally retiring. I can remember when the restaurant first opened. Back then, Sunday dinner meant mom, dad and us kids piling into the Ford LTD and taking Highway 24 from Walnut Creek through the Caldecott Tunnel to Oakland Chinatown. I thought that this was “real” Chinese food: pork chow mein, shrimp with lobster sauce, and what we called Peanut Duck.

Peanut Duck is steamed, pressed duck meat, deep fried, then cut into small squares. Its drizzled with sweet and sour sauce and sprinkled with crushed peanuts. It takes several days to prepare.

Returning to Oakland after college, graduate school, and a far-flung legal career, I searched for the Peanut Duck of my childhood.  My telephone calls to other restaurants were answered with “We haven’t served that dish in 20 years!” Lily Leung’s response was, “How many orders would you like?”

A meal at the Golden Peacock included having the company of Lily herself. She would ask, “Do you know … ?,” as she dropped the names of the other regular customers. They included judges and cops.  Jeff Adachi, the late San Francisco Public Defender, would drive in and bring back a full course dinner for his young family back in the city. There was another busy attorney who would also traverse the Bay Bridge for take-out for her elderly mother who lived in the East Bay. They would regularly share the Golden Peacock’s food in a special mother-daughter meal. The devoted daughter was Kamala Harris, someday to become Vice President of the United States.

The Golden Peacock’s food is what they now call “American-Chinese cuisine.”  For the memories of family that the Golden Peacock gave all of us, I would put the emphasis on . . . “American.”

With a Perspective, I’m Mark Morodomi.

Mark Morodomi is in-house counsel for a university in California.