WE are all guilty of it. Call it habit, or fear of trying something new, but every time we go for Chinese, don’t we always order the same thing? Special fried rice, crispy chicken, special chow choy, that usually rounds out my order. Some are sweet-and-sour-devotees, while others will hear no wrong against pork and ham choy.

So, when Mayberry CEO Chris Berry and his wife, Patricia invited us along to a celebratory lunch at Dragon Court in Montego Bay last Saturday, we thought, we’re in MoBay for Jazz, and who doesn’t love an afternoon of Chinese food? And, when we heard that Caribbean Producers Jamaica CEO Mark Hart was providing the champagne – Laurent Perrier no less – we certainly did not need to be asked twice.

It was indeed an afternoon of celebrations – the 17th wedding anniversary for Chris and Patricia, as well as the birthday of yours truly – hence, it was fitting that an afternoon of duck and champagne would prevail. However, it turned out to be much more. Glasses of Laurent Perrier aside, it turned into a culinary journey through China led by Patricia.

“Sometimes, it’s like people do not know what else to order, so they always pick the same things,” she says. This time, she was going to introduce us to some off-the-beaten-track menu options.

It all started off very unassumingly, as wonton soup, hot and sour soup, and fried wontons with sweet and sour sauce took to the table. Conversations of jazz buzzed back and forth, and of course, talk then turned to business. But, once the last of the soup was drained, it was time for the duck.

Probably one of the most well-known Chinese dishes, the preparation of Peking duck is very rarely seen, but the intricacies are what result in such distinct flavours and textures. With traditional rules that cover how the duck is cleaned to how it is sliced, Peking duck remains one of the most famous dishes from Beijing (old-time Peking).

Ok, so we are not sure how many of these ‘rules’ were kept when cooking our duck, but if taste is anything to go by, each piece of tender duck topped with the thinnest, crispiest topping of skin was cooked just perfectly. It was almost a shame to wrap it in a wafer-thin pancake covered with plum sauce, accompanied by slivers of spring onion and slices of cucumber. But we did, and truth be told, it only magnified the flavour, with the plum sauce adding a sweetness, offset by the onions and cooled by the cucumber.

But we had only just begun. Once the bamboo pots where empty of pancakes and all that remained from the plates of duck where prawn crackers, it was time for the main courses. First up was Dasheen Chicken, where slices of crispy chicken had been topped with a smooth, rich slice of dasheen, an uncommon combination, but one that scored among our top dishes. It was so packed with flavour that it stood independent of the coconut cream sauce it was served with.

More chicken came next, two types of boiled chicken, one was Hakka style and the other Cantonese (definitely another of our favourite). While most people know the Hakka version where the chicken is boiled and served plain along with a variety of dipping sauces, the Cantonese version had all the sauces and accoutrements, including spring onion, pak choi, soy sauce and ginger, in one dish.

Then the vegetables made an appearance. Long beans, a traditional Chinese green, was served with black bean sauce, while black mushroom and lettuce in oyster sauce were accompanied by preserved bamboo shoots that tenderly hid baby corn and strips of carrot that added a delicate crunch (another of our favourites).

And still the dishes kept coming. Subtly spicy Singapore noodles, broccoli with tofu and sizzling beef in oyster sauce, the last making a grand, noisy entrance. Then it was back to the duck, this time professionally folded.

Thankfully, the Chinese are not well known for their desserts. “Either lychees, ice cream or lychee ice cream,” Patricia says jokingly. She did not say anything about the cheesecake though that appeared, complete with a candle and a chorus of “Happy Birthday!”