Whenever some friends and I go to Divisoria, we drop by Sincerity Restaurant’s new branch in Lucky Chinatown Mall. One of the dishes we often order (aside from its famous fried chicken) is duck misua, a soup of misua noodles with chunks of duck meat.

Since I can’t always go to Divisoria, I decided to concoct my own version of this dish. Recently, after a family celebration in Peking Garden restaurant, I noticed that there were still substantial amounts of meat clinging to the whole roasted Peking duck we ordered. In typical Filipino fashion, I had the duck wrapped to take home.

Back in my kitchen the following day, I put the leftover duck to good use. First I extricated as much of the meat as I could from the bones. I set aside half of the meat and turned it into a favorite Thai dish: roasted duck in red curry sauce (recipe published in Inquirer in 2010). I then set aside the rest of the duck meat for the duck misua.

The key to this dish is to have a flavorful soup. I boiled the duck bones to extract the flavor. Since the duck had already been previously roasted with the appropriate seasonings and spices, this took only about 30 minutes. The resulting broth was full of rich aroma and flavor.

It was this broth that I used as the base for the misua soup. Misua cooks very quickly, so, in no time, I had a pot of duck misua soup, which (with all due respect to Sincerity Restaurant), I think, tasted even better than the restaurant variety.

You can make this dish with leftover Peking duck or with any store-bought roasted or fried duck. If you happen to have a whole duck, turn half into the roasted duck in red curry sauce and the other into duck misua.

Duck Misua

1 leftover cooked duck
12 c water
150 g misua noodles
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
Salt and pepper, to taste

Remove the meat from the duck bones and slice them into bite-size chunks. Set the duck meat aside. In a deep cooking pot, combine the duck bones with the 12 cups water. Bring to a boil. Let it boil for 30 minutes to extract flavor from the bones. Strain the liquid into a large pot, then discard the bones.

Bring the liquid to a boil, then add the misua noodles. Simmer for about one minute. Add the duck meat and season with hoisin sauce and salt and pepper. Let simmer for one more minute. Serve hot.

Cook’s tips:
Misua noodles cook very quickly, so make sure to boil them for only one minute and only on moderate heat before adding the leftover cooked duck. If you overcook the misua noodles, they will become soggy.

You can buy roasted duck in Chinatown.

Hoisin sauce is available in the condiments section of large supermarkets.