Red Faced and White Bodied

The Foochows are particular about eating ducks. The best for the table is the red faced or serati. Each red faced male serati can be as heavy as 5 kg!! the flesh is excellent for 8 treasure herbal soup or soh mien soup.

these Muscovy have very interesting feathers. And white ones are rather rare. Muscovy ducks were considered Foreign Ducks  or chuong Wang (full Allien or foregin ducks) in Fujian where my ancestors came from. Many believe that the Muscovy ducks were brought by the foreign traders who came to China (and Fuzhou) when they passed through Fuzhou City which was one of the major trading posts along the Silk Route.

They have red faces.  that's because they are caruncles which have oil glands. When the ducks groom themselves, they'll preen and rub the oil all over their feathers. This protects them when they're in the water. This is really an interesting fact.

Whether the white muscovy ducks are tastier, it is hard to tell but they are lovely to look at when they are found in a farm. I love to see their white feathers.

In the olden days, a large Foochow family in sibu would rear the red faced duck because it was easy to feed a whole family with just one large bird.

When visitors came it was a very nice and loving gesture to slaughter a Muscovy to welcome the guests.

My mother liked rearing ducks because they were hardier in those days. But when snakes came to attack the ducks she would be very broken hearted. There were times when snakes came and killed her ducks. After a while she did not rear any more ducks.

She would just buy a duck from the market when she knew that a guest was coming. And it was a tedious kitchen work for all the daughters - to pull the small feathers or downs from the duck. My mother also had to be careful when choosing a duck so that we did not have so much work to do.