My best friend just got hitched yesterday with a fellow coworker. I’m really happy for him, and I have to admit, a little bit envious coz I’ve been trying so hard to find The One and not really succeeding. Ting Chuan has been my friend ever since time immemorial – we have been buddies since we were in Primary 1 (7 years old).
The wedding banquet was held at Sheraton but I’ve been the “best buddy” since early morning. The writeup for that will be up tomorrow – it’s much more interesting. The “best buddy” system is a HK custom where the groom with an entourage of friends goes through obstacles created by the bride and her friends to gain access to her room and bring her back home.
It was a lot of fun since it was the first time I’ve ever been involved in such an event. The custom isn’t Malaysian, it has just gained popularity recently due to the influx of HK and Taiwan serials. 😉 There are a lot of interesting Chinese customs that I was exposed to and I will be writing about that with videos tomorrow.
I found the couple to be really sweet, they’re very nicely matched. Ting Chuan and Siew Ling just look so happy together that I couldn’t help but be happy for them. It’s nice to be married and settled and having kids and all that. It’s the life I want – that’s the purpose of my life, to leave behind my life of excess and find a soul mate who can tame me and domesticate me.
The lunch reception started out at 12 noon and the first dish is the obligatory Chinese appetizer/sampler dish. It has prawns, abalone, fish and other dishes on a huge platter divided physically into sections.
The second dish is “black chicken” soup – which is a kind of free range chicken that is renowned in Chinese cuisine as being more nutritious than regular chickens.
I’m not sure if it’s the same thing as kampung chicken but it’s usually served during celebrations such as birthdays, weddings and festive seasons.
The third dish is fish – a staple of all Chinese banquets. It’s a mixture of pan fried salmon and deep fried breaded fish. It’s surprisingly delicious, but then again I was famished from waking up in the morning for the entourage to the bride’s house. 🙂
The next dish is a Peking duck type affair with the waitress taking rolls of soft, warm and fluffy bread (called man tou) and filling it with a piece of duck, spring onions, and then drizzling it with sauce before serving it individually.
I liked this dish. It’s the sauce that makes or breaks the duck and the sauce at Sheraton is really good.
The fifth dish was a combination of two items – there’s sweet and sour pork on one side of the dish and sea cucumber served in half a pineapple on the other side. It’s supposed to represent the yin and yang.
The next dish also follows the yin yang concept with deep fried prawns on one side and abalone in a ring of broccoli on the other side.
The lunch wedding reception ended with a fruit platter and a mooncake and yam dish. They got married during the Mid Autumn Festival so the mooncakes were there as a nod to the occasion.
Congratulations Siaw Ting Chuan and Wong Siew Ling!
I will post the pre-wedding customs that started in the morning tomorrow – I found that experience to be much more interesting, as the “best buddy”. There are heaps of photos and lots of videos to upload, so I did the reverse chronological thing and posted up the lunch reception first. 🙂
hb.. sibu liao lo..
btw. being best buddy very tiring one u know. been few times liao, very experienced liao, those male friends all takut me liao… cos i am very very bad, never give face to the brothers. hahahah
Is there an uncle who is a blogger too sitting in the same table with you during the lunch reception? Saw him with a big camera shooting at the food.
HB, im surprised to read this:
“It’s nice to be married and settled and having kids and all that. It’s the life I want – that’s the purpose of my life, to leave behind my life of excess and find a soul mate who can tame me and domesticate me.”
U’ll find someone.
HB, nice pictures of food. Being Cantonese, we have different kinds of food for wedding. It more Jungsan style food not Hong Kong style. Not sure Malaysia restaurants have oyster rolls that serve only in banquest. I notice interesting soup not a seafood soup. It good to learn and see different customs from your blog. Wonder do brides give engagement cakes to inform of marriage it my custom here in States.
omg Ting Chuan so big liao arrrr!!! Do send my best regards to him (if he remembers me).
congratz to your friend… i am just looking at the food.. and i must go back
I was so interested in the FOOD! Living in San Francisco been to a few wedding banquests and it is very different kind of Chinese foods. It mostly Hong Kong styles. In Hawaii there are more Junshan Chinese which I am, so food also different. What kind is your friend banquest? In San Francisco it mostly Taishan Cantoneses culture. Being a guy mostly the bride got the work cut out for her in planning wedding. Lucky I got many sisters to help out when the day happen for me and my future bride.
congrats to your friend ya 🙂
Dude,the banquet was held in the afternoon, the good old Foochow tradition along the Rejang river.
In the old days, friends and relatives traveled to wedding banquets by small outboards or sampans or expresses. They’d leave in the morning and come back before dark…actually, before the crocs came out..
Nice Sheraton franchised restaurant.
It great to see many different things from your country. Being Chinese I enjoy the many different customs all Chinese have in Asia. Your friend’s wedding looked of happy and so the foods. Your pictures tell a story very well. You must use a very good camera for it.
Did you get wedding cakes in small boxes to take home too?
Congratulations to the newlywed! At least the wedding dinner you attended has nice dishes as compared to the usual predictable wedding dishes here.
I love what you did with the fererro rocher mooncake. It was creative. Keep it up yo. Maybe you can use Fidani truffles in the next attempt. 🙂
Congratulations to the newlywed! At least the wedding dinner you attended has nice dishes as compared to the usual predictable wedding dishes here.
I love what you did with the fererro rocher mooncake. It was creative. Keep it up yo. Maybe you can use Fidani truffles in the next attempt. 🙂
I have yet to become the “heng tai” for any of my friends, since they are not settling down yet. I bet it’s going to be interesting.
Gosh! They had TWO receptions! Could have used Civic Centre or SHS hall and have a grand one! Ooo…I love that duck dish at Sheraton, other than the fish head curry! Hint! Hint! LOL!!
It’s nice to be married and settled and having kids and all that. It’s the life I want – that’s the purpose of my life, to leave behind my life of excess and find a soul mate who can tame me and domesticate me.— i’ve been to many of my friends’ wedding and i have the same feelings too each time i attended one 😀 would love to attend yours one day.
Teasing the groom and brothers and blocking the access to the bride is, in fact, a very traditional culture in the Canton province practised mainly by the cantonese speaking cantonese and some hakka people although the teochew (who are also in Canton) might consider it a taboo.
The practice has existed long ago and not just within this couple of decades.
You may do a Goole Book Search on “Village and family in contemporary China By William L. Parish” and read it online.
From what I know the morning session thing is called ‘chi mui’. I also think it’s been around for a long time, but it seems that recently the emphasis has gone more onto making the groom (and buddies) ‘prove’ his devotion by doing lots of tasks and so on. Before it was more about handing out ang-pow to the female relatives who would block the gate/door.
It’s an interesting phenomenon from a gender point of view, an example of increased ‘girl-power’ in Chinese culture, maybe.
goolooloo: Yeah, by the time I’m replying this comment, I already know. 😉
Have been quite slow in replying comments lately. A lot of work.
Hmm…then I hope I don’t marry one of your friends. Haha! 🙂
Choonie: Nope, I don’t think he’s a blogger. Most of the people there had digicams. It’s very common nowadays.
p-t: Thanks buddy…I hope to find that elusive someone soon. It’s time to settle down.
Erica: Oyster rolls? I’ve never eaten those but it sounds delicious! Yeah, some people serve this soup instead of the usual shark fin or sea cucumber soup over here. As far as I know, engagement cakes does not exist in our culture over here, but then again with globalization and other cultural influences, I’m sure there’s some people doing it. 🙂
kutucat: Heh! He’s the same age as me. I will send him your regards, he’s on his way to KL now for his honeymoon. 🙂
clementwpy: Cheers buddy!
Jason: My friend is Hainan Cantonese. His wife is Foochow. I’m not sure what the banquet is like since I’m not very familiar with Chinese customs, but it’s likely a combination of the two different ethnicities.
annant: Thanks mate!
e: Interesting! So that’s why Foochow banquets are held in the afternoon. I’ve always wondered about that. Stems from a good reason, it seems.
Shelly: Yeah, I was dying to get married when I saw his marriage. Everything seems so sweet. I want to get married too but I have to find the right person, a person who can tame me. I have a bit of a wild and reckless streak.
I don’t have a good camera coz I either lose them or they fall into bodies of water. A dSLR is on my purchase list though. I’m currently using a Sony Premium T300.
Some banquets have the small cakes in boxes to take home, the last wedding I went to had it – blogged about it a month or two ago.
eiling: Thanks eiling! 🙂
I can’t find Fidani truffles over here. You should open up a franchise but then again I don’t think the market sophistication is there yet. I wanna go on a kichen tour! 🙂
Darren: Yeah, it’s quite fun actually. Rowdy and loud, but friendly environment. 🙂
suituapui: Or the Exhibition Center. A lot of people have massive wedding receptions there. Sheraton had two weddings going on that afternoon.
Curry fish head, sure, since Mary is in Sibu now. 😉
janel: Yeah, I do want all that now that I’m hitting the dreaded 30. It’s hard to be forever young.
I will invite you for sure since I want blogger coverage for my wedding. 😉
…but it’s so hard to get you out. You never reply emails. :p
Glass: Yeah, but it’s never been a part of Sibu culture until recently. It’s strange eh, or maybe I’ve just not been to many traditional Chinese weddings. The weddings I usually attend are church weddings.
Thanks for the info, much appreciated mate! 🙂
julian: Yeah, that’s the thing we were doing. There’s a lot of tasks nowadays and some of the ones I heard from friends were bordering on the ridiculous instead of the harmless fun it should be.
Interesting observation, that last bit. I never thought of it that way. Cheers! 🙂
You mean you never had oyster rolls? Well It Jungsan Cantonese and so far the most Jungsan people (Sun Jungsan, Sun Yet Sen)live in Hawaii. There a lot in Taiwan and Singapore too. I remember my dad who was a chef made it. Dried oysters soak and soft chop up and ground pork and water chestnut, green onion, oyster sause, soy sauce sesame oil salt and pepper.
I studying to be a chef and made it because I enjoy it very much. Serve on wedding banquests oyster (Hou see) good luck. It made into little rolls and steam and roll in flour and egg and cracker crumb deep fry till golden. Oop I not writing a recipe blog sorry.
The most famous Jungsan people now is Adam Cheng actor and singer in Hong Kong and Aaron Kwok, Andy Lau.
Hey man. My twin brother the chef forgot to write fish paste for oyster rolls recipe. I readed it and told him of it. Some recipe have also chop bamboo shoots with other ingredient. If I tie the knot one day my parents like it both of us being twin marry twin sisters on the same day too.
Not sure possible but never know. Again fish paste with other ingredients for recipe and I not studying cooking but guess baking. French pastries. Like him Oop this is not a recipe blog.
I saw that recipe and know it well too. To make it texture more firm when steaming add beaten egg and cornstarch to mixture before shaping it .
Funny those two brothers are twin also into food. My family in Hawaii have Chinese restaurants and is reason I interested in other Chinese cultures in Asia.
I know this recipe and I never add beaten egg in it still turn out not bad. So up to person. I some time use dry mussels it cheaper for holidays meals.
There some photo on Flickr showing this dish and some restaurants in Taipei that serve it. It a Jungsan dish.
Justin: Nope, I’ve never had oyster rolls. I should check it out next time I’m in Singapore. It sounds great. Dried oysters. Mmm…
It’s nice to have a job that you enjoy doing. I have wanted to be a chef when I was younger as well, but I don’t think I’m much suited for it.
Megan: Interesting. I haven’t seen a lot of Jungsan people over here.
Dustin: Hey, that would be an excellent idea! 🙂
Double wedding of twins WITH twins. It’ll definitely be a wedding to remember.
Shelly: Yeah, I’ve had a couple of friends who’s parents moved to Australia to open up Chinese restaurants. One of them did quite well in the business in Perth. It’s a good market to tap into due to the large amount of overseas Chinese students there.
Angie: I have never seen dry mussels as well. I’ve had the fresh ones (quite plentiful and cheap in New Zealand and Australia) though, ready to eat. I love the stuff, going to get my sister to bring it back.
Everlyn: Okay, will search for it. Cheers! 🙂
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