Which are the most emotive three words in the English language? You could argue that it's a head-to-head between "I love you" and "aromatic crispy duck".
It was primarily for the duck that Secret Service decided to return to the New Water Margin, in Burton Road, having fond memories of the dish.
For the uninitiated, the New Water Margin has been serving Cantonese and Peking cuisine in Derby for a long time. It celebrated its 30th birthday in January this year and was taken over by the current team three years after it opened.
If you had to imagine an archetypal Chinese restaurant, the result would probably look something like the New Water Margin. There are golden dragons, Chinese characters and Chinese lantern-style light shades.
It has a pagoda-style frontage with two Chinese dragons either side of the doors which lead to an entrance area dominated by a dramatic oriental red, black and gold colour scheme.
Our starter at the New Water Margin was a no-brainer.
On the menu, you can order a whole or half an aromatic crispy duck. The whole bird would probably be enough for at least eight people. A half would be enough for four but you can probably do the maths.
Given there were just the two of us, the waiter offered a quarter portion – an option that does not appear to be on the menu.
The duck thigh arrived and, with some skill, the waiter went about stripping the meat which flaked away easily from the bones.
The first bite being with the eye, the waiter’s bit of theatre preparing the duck got our mouths watering.
Aromatic crispy duck is served with light Chinese pancakes and fine strips of spring onion and cucumber with which we made wraps flavoured with hoisin sauce.
It did not disappoint.
The meat was soft, rich, salty and, unsurprisingly, crispy in all the right places. The salad was cool and crunchy and the hoisin sauce was sweet and tangy.
As a self-professed crispy aromatic duck connoisseur, your spy believes that the crispy aromatic duck at the New Water Margin is really very fine crispy aromatic duck.
It did overshadow the main courses a bit.
The sea bass in black bean sauce might have been able to compete, however, this is both an expensive dish and, because the fish is steamed and it is quite a big fish, it takes a long time to prepare.
With that in mind, we decided instead to have the king prawn in black bean sauce alongside chicken in honey and lemon sauce, sharing a portion of egg fried rice between us.
The peppers with the king prawn dish were crunchy, the plump king prawns were juicy and the sauce was dark and sticky. The chicken dish was sweet, salty and with a lightly acidic citrus tang from the lemon.
They were perfectly nice but, like so many Chinese restaurants, the choice of scores of different dishes can be a bit overwhelming.
In retrospect, we should probably have asked the waiter for a recommendation rather than pore over the menu unsure of what to choose. As an aside, this is a decent tactic in most independently run restaurants.
Chinese food tends to be quite filling so, rather than have a dessert, we washed down the meal with a pot of green tea, which felt like a fitting end.
As far as Chinese restaurants go in Derby, the New Water Margin's 30 years in business is a testament to how good it is.
And the restaurant's aromatic crispy duck adds weight to the argument that the words "aromatic crispy duck" are on a par with "I love you" as the most emotive three words in the English language.
The bill
¼ aromatic crispy duck - £8.50
Chicken in honey and lemon sauce - £7.50
King prawn in black-bean sauce - £9
Egg fried rice - £2.80
Drinks - £8.80
Total: £38.50
Opening hours
Monday to Thursday - noon-3pm and 6pm to 11pm
Friday and Saturday - noon-3pm and 6pm to 11.30pm
Sunday noon-10.30pm
The New Water Margin also does takeaway. For more details, go to www.newwatermargin.co.uk.
*The Derby Telegraph makes undercover visits to restaurants, takeaways and cafes with a view to providing a fair, balanced and accurate report on customer service and the food on offer. Our hope is that, for the sake of both the business owner and the customer, we can report positively about the places we visit. However if our experience is not 100 per cent positive then we are duty-bound to report on exactly what we find.
We've just launched our very own app for Android and Apple devices which can be tailored to deliver the news and sport that you're interested in.
To download the iOS app click here .
To download the Android app click here .
