This is perhaps my longest interval for not blogging. With the wedding dinner just five days away, Wuan and I have been busy with errands. Weekends have been spent getting the essential items. Two Sundays ago, we went hunting for Wuan’s evening dress. She got a simple one from Beatrice Looi at Bangsar Village. The weekend just passed, we went to Mid Valley Megamall to shop for my shirt and shoes for the both of us. I had spent the weekdays in between arranging seatings and tables for the 300 guests. That took five days and plenty of headaches. I have done all I can from here. The rest will have to be wrapped up in Penang when we get there.
Tag: Chinese wedding banquet
Counting Down To The Wedding Banquet
The wedding banquet is barely one month away. With Wuan and I in Kuala Lumpur and the venue in Penang, we have made several trips back to deal with the restaurant, give out invitations and resolve issues related to the event. Although we are a little worn out by all these tasks, we find gratification in seeing the organising of the banquet falling into place. Thanks to Suanie who has been a great help in inviting mutual friends, bloggers in the Klang Valley mostly, on our behalf. At the same time, we are also working in parallel to prepare for a joint photo exhibition with Victor Chin that will run for two weeks from August 17. More on this event later. Updates will be sporadic until then.
No Shark Fin Soup For Our Wedding Banquet
Braised sea cucumber in superior sauce
When is a Chinese wedding banquet not a Chinese wedding banquet? Does the exclusion of shark fin soup and braised sea cucumber with abalone make it any less traditional? These exotic marine products cooked in various ways are as staple in Chinese wedding banquets as the copious amount of free-flowing brandy and shouts of yam seng punctuating the already jovial atmosphere.
Chinese banquets are all about “face” of the hosts. Therefore, the hosts will always attempt to go all out at serving dishes with ingredients that are exotic and expensive at banquets. Anything less and the hosts will lose face before their guests. As for me, I am more concerned about how the ingredients used are being harvested to extinction than losing face.
A while back, I watched on the Discovery channel how fins were hacked off and the sharks thrown back into the sea still alive to die a slow agonizing death. It was there and then that I decided that if I ever hold a wedding banquet, I will never serve shark fin soup. Likewise, abalones and sea cucumbers have become endangered species due to over-exploitation.
If not shark fin, sea cucumber and abalone then what? Changing times demand a change in traditions. Although I have grown up with the impression that these are must-haves at wedding banquets, I am sure the restaurants will be able to come out with alternative dishes for the menu. There are so many other commonly available ingredients to cook up delicious dishes with.