Get the Peking duck. It takes two hours' advance notice and a $30 investment, but in those two hours, an ordinary water fowl is transformed into candy. Roasted to a gleaming mahogany finish, the lacquered bird is presented for inspection table-side before it is carved by servers more attentive than any you'd meet in the San Gabriel Valley. Watch and drool as the brittle, spun-sugar shards of skin are carefully removed, each precious crisped strip portioned onto round after round of pliant, crepe-like tortillas, then wrapped with swipes of sauce, meat and curls of shaved scallion to make duck tacos as slender as cigars. What remains of the bony carcass is whisked to the kitchen and simmered to create a murky, soul-feeding soup with clear noodles. $$