Jul 25 2007
The Reception: A Night of Laughter, Part I - The Food
Have you ever been to a Chinese banquet?
No? Do you have an adventurous palate? Do you have a sense of humor? If you answered yes to the last 2 questions, you’re in for a treat!
The wedding reception was held in a large Chinese restaurant known for great food and fantastic seafood dishes.
Chinese restaurants that specialize in seafood always proudly display the freshness and quality of their seafood with massive fish tanks out front. If they can’t fit them in the front, they are on display somewhere, the next place being lined up along the back.
As you can see by the display this place had, they were serious about fresh seafood!
Chinese banquets are boisterous events, especially if the families involved are large. This was a reception for a cousin on my father’s side and my dad has a horde of relatives. Usually we overwhelm the other family. In this case the bride also had a large family (some who flew in from Shanghai) so the noise level was high and so was the energy.
There were kids running around, adorable in their frothy beribboned dresses or tidy suits. There were 4 generations at this reception and it bodes well for my aging process that many of my relatives in their 80s are still healthy. Most of us only see each other during the holidays or even less so there was a whole lot of catching up and laughing.
The reception set up one long table for the bride and groom and their immediate family. This table faced the dining area. The dining area was packed with round tables, each seating 10 guests. I heard there were 30 tables so 300 people were expected to show up!
Each table had a Lazy Susan (rotating tray). Dinner is served family style in that each dish comes out separately and is shared. The guests help themselves to a portion and then rotate the dish to the next person. The next entree comes out when most people have completed the one before it.
When it comes to Chinese banquets, the more seafood dishes you see, the more money you know the reception cost! There are some “traditional” dishes like Shark’s Fin Soup and Peking Duck. Most banquets I’ve attended have included these. I could tell that someone shelled out some serious bucks for this reception as the dishes included lobster, abalone with mushrooms, and squab. No Peking Duck but my guess is the lobster was pricier!
Now, the thing with Chinese banquets is that unlike vegetarians who “don’t eat things with eyes” Chinese like to SEE THE EYES or at least have the head (and tail or feet) included in the dish. So the squab dish included little brown and crispy squab heads, the rock cod was de-boned but left whole on the plate and the lobster? Yep, you could see it’s eyes or rather it’s eyestalks.
Note: This is not a photo of the actual dish. I did not take any photos of the food. The lobster dish we were given had a nicer presentation but I think the 2 lobsters were also facing each other. See what I mean by needing a sense of humor?
I once attended a reception with a couple of colorless (Caucasian) “newbies” at the table and when each dish came out, they would look at me for instructions. The noodle and rice dishes were greeted with smiles of recognition. At that particular reception there were seafood delicacies like sea cucumber. The newbies looked at the dish. Then they looked at me.
I had to tell them which was the “meat” (the sea cucumber) and which was the “veg” (in this case it was black mushrooms). I think they passed on the sea cucumber, especially after seeing me shrug my shoulders and replying to their question with, “I think it’s some type of sea slug.”
Drinks included pots of tea, soda, sparkling white wine, a Pinot Grigio and a Pinot Noir. Asians don’t process alcohol all that well so there were many flushed faces. Despite this, Chinese do like their Cognac and near the end of the meal a bottle of Hennessy will come out or in this case, Remy Martin.
Throughout the meal, the newlyweds are encouraged to kiss. Encouragement is done via the guests insistently tapping their glasses with a fork or knife. The longer the couple hesitate, the louder the tapping will become as more guests clue in to the game and start tapping as well.
Next: The Reception: A Night of Laughter, Part II - Weird Wedding Games
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LOL… Colorless? That is priceless.
I wish I could have gone with you. I have a thing for seafood. Not to mention a good time.
This is the second time I’ve heard of the tapping of the glass situation. The first was at the wedding I spoke of in my blog. Even the bride didn’t know what it was.
I look forward to your next wedding blog post.
UT: Since non-whites are called “People of Color” I thought “Colorless” was a good alternate!
I am sure if you were there with me, we would have had a good time! The food was very good. I ate too much.
This was the 3rd wedding I’ve gone to in less than a year. A set of 3 brothers! I think everyone (brothers and the new sisters-in-laws) are all worn out. Happy but worn out!
Sigh. I remember when my cousins were born! It’s nice to see them looking so happy.
I would love to attend this just to have you show me the cultural things. Of course I am very happy for the couple and wish them well. But I love learning about this stuff!
People of Color… An elder once told me ‘People of Color’ best fit White People because if you hit them they would turn all sorts of colors (purple, green, blue). More than Black People would.
Ricardo: I didn’t even describe some of the other stuff (the emcee which I’m never sure about) and the slideshow in the beginning and just all these little details. Yeah, I’d love to read about someone’s Jewish wedding! I’ve kinda heard about it and seen movie scenes (it involves carrying the couple around on chairs and breaking a wine glass or something by stomping on it?) Not sure.
UT: Hahaha! Ya gotta have a sense of humor about all this color stuff. What’s funnier is that white is really the combination of ALL colors:
“White is the combination of all the colors of the visible light spectrum”
So maybe Caucasians are colorless, Negroids and Mongoloids (going by the racial “types”) are colorful and when it comes right down to it, we’re ALL white inside! I gotta make a post about this.
I saw a Jewish wedding on MTV last night that depicted what you mentioned (the bride/groom being carried on chairs). It looked real fun.
The color issue is a big joke to me. It all comes down to cultural differences (and religion - in some cases one in the same).
Oooh! I don’t know about the sea slug but those lobsters look like YUMMY! I was carried on a chair, and my ex-husband stomped a glass even though he isn’t Jewish. Sounds like a GREAT TIME!!!!!
UT: Somehow Jewish wedding + MTV sounds so whacky. Then again…it also makes a weird kind of sense.
The chairs do sound like fun. I would hope that the chair thing would happen BEFORE the drinking begins!
Jill: The sea cucumbers are actually kinda crunchy like cucumbers. I’m not much into seafood but the lobster I had was pretty good.
So your children are Jewish then, right? From what I understand, being Jewish is passed by the mother which is why a non-Jewish woman must convert if her Jewish husband-to-be wants Jewish children?
Yes. It goes by the mother. That’s because it’s the mother who cooks & drives the kids to Sunday school I believe.