Polly had her wedding last Sunday and I drove 1 ½ hours (yes, it really is that near) down from KL with my girlfriend, Cherry and Susan in tow to get to Tangkak, Johor on Saturday to attend the festivities.
My girlfriend was one of the sisters (ji mui) and after a night’s rest at a guesthouse the bride was kind enough to arrange for us, we arrived at Polly’s place at around 7 am to eat breakfast and start the preparations.
There was chicken rice, buns and other stuff and we had to eat rather quickly since the groom’s delegation was due to arrive soon.
Padlocks galore to prevent entry.
There was also this drink of prayer paper being burnt into water – it’s supposed to bring peace and harmony and I took a sip, despite being agnostic in my beliefs. It’s a Buddhist custom.
As tradition goes, the groom and his entourage of cars came amidst a lot of honking to announce their presence.
They disembarked at the front gate for the “sisters” (female friends of the bride) to grill the “brothers” (male friends of the groom) – this usually involves various stages which the brothers will have to go through in order for the groom to get to the bride.
The sisters act as a gatekeeper of sorts – asking the brothers to perform a multitude of tasks before being allowed deeper and deeper into the house.
This is a Hong Kong custom and I’m told it’s supposed to make the groom more appreciative of the bride due to the obstacles he has to go through to get her.
I remember faces being painted with makeup, drinks of Guinness with a raw egg inside (which is pretty delicious actually), and panties being put on by the groom’s band of brothers before they get into the house.
It was all in good fun…
…for all parties involved.
There was also a lot of interesting yoga poses that they have to perform before being allowed entry.
The brothers got back at the sisters after that by hiding all their shoes. 
The groom finally gets to the bride! *applause
Anyway, the customary tea giving ceremony to the elders were performed at the bride’s place and at the groom’s place.
This took quite a while and sent us to three different places and we convened back at the groom’s place where the bride throws the flowers.
The bouquet of flowers somehow landed in Cherry’s hands.
Heh!
I also appropriated the flowers for a bit of camwhoring.
I like this mish mash of Eastern and Western traditions though when it comes to my wedding, I think I’ll forgo most of it in lieu of a more private ceremony at a beach or the highlands with an outdoor wedding ceremony.
There was a break after that before the lunch wedding reception so we took the opportunity to go back and take a 1 hour nap before showering and heading out again.
I was quite sleep deprived and needed the shut eye since we’re driving down straight after the wedding reception.
The lunch wedding reception was held at Bangunan Persatuan Eng Choon – a meeting halls of sorts. There’s a lack of restaurants with the capacity to fit the people invited in Tangkak since it’s a small town.
The bride and groom already had another wedding in Penang prior to this. It’s not uncommon to have multiple weddings due to relatives – my sister had 3 – one in New Zealand, one in KL and one in Sibu.
We were seated at a table labelled “Diploma Friends”. I don’t know Polly personally, she’s Jeanie’s friend and I guess that makes me the chauffeur cum +1 in this entire shebang. 😉
The first dish was refreshingly different. I mean that literally. It was a hot afternoon and the lychee, grapes and pineapple chunks on a bed of ice inside a hollowed out pineapple really did the trick.
There is also the more traditional “sampler” first dish. I think there’s a name to it, usually “Four Seasons” or something to that effect but I like to call it a sampler dish coz it comes in a smorgasbord of small servings. I like the unorthodox century eggs and peanuts in this dish. The satay was good and so was the cuttlefish.
The next dish is a combination of pork, yam and sea cucumber braised in dark sauce. It’s really good as well.
Of course, there’s the customary shark fin’s soup after that. I like the generous servings of shark’s fin inside – you can literally see the huge chunks in each bowl.
Here you go! I know a lot of people are against shark’s fin, but I’m neither a tree hugger or an environmentalist wannabe, I eat just about anything – my previous culinary adventures can be a testament to that. 😉
Polly works at a records company and she got this famous local singer to come and perform at the wedding reception. I don’t know his name but my girlfriend told me he’s the one who sang the Hokkien song “If I had a billion dollars”. No, not the “I wanna be a billionaire” song currently on the airwaves, this is old skool stuff.
He did a parody of other well known Chinese artists and I can’t get most of his references coz I don’t listen to that genre of music but it was quite entertaining.
During the interlude, there came a dish of prawns – it’s done in a yin yang presentation, with half of it being deep fried butter prawns topped with mayo and the other fried in hot sauce.
I preferred the butter prawns and it was so crunchy that you can eat the entire thing, head and tail. At least that’s how I eat my prawns. A lot of people are surprised that I can eat the entire thing without shelling. I guess it’s equal part laziness and having a taste for the shell – I think it tastes better whole.
Another must have dish during weddings is fish – this is a steamed fish which I can’t identify. However, I really liked the soft texture and the sauce that it was done with. I like this kind of fish, I don’t know when I started liking fish, since I never used to as a kid, same with vegetables.
…then came the best dish of the wedding reception. This is hands down is the most delicious thing that I had that day. It’s roasted suckling pig.
I like the thinly sliced crispy skin and the BBQ sauce served under it. The presentation is really awesome too – you can clearly see that the entire pig has been served.
The tongue of the sucking pig was something I had to work very hard to get. I like the taste of tongue – you can find canned versions of it but the best thing is to eat it fresh in England or Australia.
There were a lot of dishes that day – this is paper wrapped chicken. It’s cooked inside wrapping to produce meat that literally melts in your mouth. It’s tender and all the flavors are preserved due to the cooking method.
I couldn’t eat very much after that but there was a serving of sliced abalone, ham, broccoli, mushrooms and a rare (and expensive) type of seafood that I don’t know the name of. It’s chewy and it tastes like clams.
The final dish was rather unique as well – it’s ice cream! I found that it suits the weather rather well. We saw one person eating it with chopsticks and another eating it with a soup spoon at another table. Jeanie thought it was pretty funny and I took several photos of me doing it as well.
When in Tangkak…
…do as the Tangkak-ians do.
Cheers to the newlyweds!
All the best in all your future endeavors! 🙂
I really enjoyed this experience and though I was just about nodding off on the drive back, a quick pit stop and an energy drink resolved that.
It was a really fun weekend and a good opportunity to meet the girlfriend’s friends. 😀
Nice one brother! So when is your turn?
Heh! I reckon 11.11.11 or 12.12.12. The latter would be a more realistic date if everything goes well. 😉
I will pencil both dates into my diary. You have to show me this sister and brother thing? I never came across this before. And what’s the picture about, where the brothers hold cups and some bloke pee into the cup? Man, you have to be a really good brother to drink his pee.
Heh! Sure thing bro. I don’t think I’m going to do the brother and sister thing, it’s not our culture, it’s an imported one from Hong Kong.
I come from a Methodist family and even though I’m agnostic, there will be a church service of some sort, preferably at the beach/highlands. 🙂
BTW, that’s soya bean. It was a task one of the sisters thought up. 🙂
I’ve saved 12 cents already. Hopefully by next year i can visit sibu. hey, you better have it in sibu otherwise I will be the only on there. And don’t forget to invite your Man U friend.
Heh! There will be some sort of ceremony in Sibu but it’s too soon to be planning it bro. 🙂
also, what’s the standard bucks night in Sibu? How many strippers can we have? Any gold fish involved?
I don’t think I’m going to have a stag night. Not so much into bachelor parties. I bet it gives you one hell of a hangover the next day.
Besides, there are no strippers in Sibu – only mainland Chinese and Filipino working girls and you don’t want to catch a disease before your big day. 😉
The food in weddings outside of KL is ALWAYS so much better than those in KL hotels. But can’t agree with eating sharks fin tbh, if they ate the whole shark it’d be fine but they just cut the fins off and throw it back in the sea to drown. Plus it doesn’t taste of anything and has no nutritional value.
Yeah, it does seem so. KL wedding banquets are pretty much the same.
I get what you mean bro, I see that in the documentaries as well. I think some people eat shark meat though. I’ve eaten it once, someone caught it on a deep sea fishing trip. It was small (about the size of a work desk) but really vicious – we all had to stay far away from it as it kept trashing around.
Shark meat tastes sandy. We didn’t eat the fin coz no one knew how to prepare it. I thought the meat was pretty good but I guess those commercial shark fin fishers just want maximum profit with the minimum space in their fishing vessel.
Y u so hensem oredi! Bila ur turn to kahwin? HahA~ q;
Haha! Thanks Cindy! 🙂
I dunno la, people say I’ve become thinner but I’m eating the same amount of food so I can’t quite figure it out. I see myself everyday so I can’t comment but I guess they’re right. I think it’s more regular meals instead of the one meal a day binge I usually do. 🙂
Oh, about the wedding bit, reckon it’s going to be 12.12.12 to be realistic but we haven’t gotten that far yet. 😉
I find that the Chinese wedding banquet’s food in small town taste better than in the city.
Yeah, I think so too. I don’t know why, maybe it’s coz of the small town ambience or the more home cooked style but it tastes better to me too.
I eat prawns without taking away the shell too.
I’m sure many are waiting for your turn to be the groom hehehe… All the best!
Yeah, it’s so much easier to just eat the entire prawn right? =D
Heh! Yeah, am thinking of it. I like the 12.12.12 date, it would be damn near impossible to forget your anniversary like that. 😉
Dude, pix#5 is interesting, I can’t eat my dinner with a toilet plunger in full view
Haha! This is a guest house too. They have a lack of hotels in Tangkak but there’s surprisingly a lot of guest houses that you can rent and live in. 🙂
cherry is cute.
‘she in the market? 😀
Heh! Yeah she’s cute. I don’t think she’s available though bro. 🙂
HB, wonderful wedding. Notice food is not Cantonese style. What kind was it? Look so very good in photos. Cantonese must have Dragon, Phoenix dishes lobster and chicken for good luck and start of marriage life. Will your be with traditional Chinese Wedding food in it?
Thanks Erica!
Hmm…I’m not sure what cuisine the food is myself. Suckling pig sounds pretty Cantonese to me, but I may be mistaken. The others are fusion of various styles.
I like the idea of a banquet dinner and my grandma would probably insist on it, but if it were up to me, I’m not one for tradition, I’m pretty easy going that way. 🙂
I do like Chinese food though.
i’m (theoretically) against the consumption of shark’s fin too! but i love it and whenever it appears at dinners i think to myself, the shark already died anyway might as well not let it die in vain T____________T
I like the way you think Aud! 😀
Not letting the shark die in vain. Heh!
Well, I like it too, it has a nice texture, and actually shark’s meat is pretty good as well, so they might as well just use the entire thing but I guess space is an issue for commercial shark fin enterprises. *shrugs
it’s funny to see satay served as a 1st dish in a chinese wedding but they are creative! And I can’t help but to laught at your pics eating ice cream with chopsticks!
Yup, it’s interesting to see peanuts served as part of the first dish (technically the second since the fruits came first) too! I’ve never seen a presentation like this. I like it too, very unique. 🙂
HAHA! Yeah, we saw an old lady eating it the ice cream cone with a pair of chopsticks and an old man eating it with a soup spoon at another table.
Couldn’t resist taking photos of me doing the same. 😉
May be you can try to eat ice cream with folk and knife.
Heh! Now you’re giving me ideas Teck. 😉
I shall try doing that next time! 😀
Great wedding, congrats to the couple 🙂 I miss these type of fun occasions living in the States. Sigh, truly miss my family and friends back in KL!
Yeah, I love weddings too, it’s always nice to see people get together. 🙂
Hey, come back to KL for the holidays Kiran, it’ll be fun! 🙂
How come most of the pictures we can see Cherry in there?
She’s one of the 2 people who came up with the both of us. 🙂
Whut, no fireworks?? 😀 😉
There’s firecrackers! 😀