VANCOUVER: Chinese wedding banquet

This should be the last of the wedding-related posts, I swear! We’ve had a lot of friends ask about what we ate during our Chinese wedding banquet at the Victoria Chinese Restaurant (in the same complex as the Hyatt Regency Vancouver hotel). It was hosted by my parents and attended by 250 of their our closest friends and family.

All photos below are by the incomparable Gracci and Rico who run Pelaez Photography.

I love that you really don’t have to worry about decorations at Chinese receptions. Victoria already had the gold charger plates, red tablecloths, gold chair covers etc. The stunning orchid and horsetail centrepieces are the exquisite work of my aunt who owns False Creek Flowers.

Almost all Chinese banquets start with a cold appetizer plate. Strands of jellyfish (海蜇) are a staple. There’s not a lot of flavour in them as there is a crunchy, chewy texture.

Along with that, there was delicious roasted suckling pig (化皮乳豬件). Pig used to be a symbol of virginity and it was tradition for the groom to present the bride’s family with a whole roasted pig.

Sautéed ostrich with honey peas (碧綠鴕鳥柳) was a fun twist, because my mom doesn’t eat beef, but my dad also wanted to add some flash to traditional courses. The lean ostrich was simply done like a stirfry — and tasted like beef.

A phoenix symbolizes the female role in a marriage. Some archaeologists believe ostrich may be the source of the legend of the phoenix.

Steamed dried scallop (發財玉環瑤柱甫) stuffed in cucumber with black moss was the third dish. Dried scallop, or conpoy, has a strong fishy smell, and is considered a gourmet ingredient.

Black moss, which thankfully you can’t see in the photo, actually looks like hair. It hardly has any flavour, but the Chinese name for black moss sounds like “prosperity.”

We declined to serve shark fin soup and instead went with a clear, double-boiled broth with fish maw, Chinese mushrooms, wolfberries and vegetables (花膠，北菰，杞子燉菜膽).

Like with so many delicacies, fish maw has little flavour, but has a distinctive texture. What is a fish maw? Well, it’s actually an “air bladder,” or an organ filled with gas that helps a fish control its buoyancy.

Wolfberries, also known as goji berries, are rich in antioxidants and have long been used in Chinese medicine. Goji also sounds like “several sons” in Cantonese.

I made sure we had time to properly enjoy the stirfried lobster tail and deep-fried claws (金銀龍蝦). Juicy pieces of lobster tail smothered in creamy “supreme sauce” and crispy salt-and-pepper claws were worth getting my fingers messy for!

Literally “dragon shrimp,” lobster symbolizes the male dragon role in marriage; it’s also red — the colour of happiness and joy.

Abalone is a delicacy reserved for weddings and other special occasions. Here, it was braised whole and served simply with broccoli with oyster sauce (蠔皇三頭鮮鮑魚). Abalone has a subtle, earthy, slightly sweet flavour closest to a scallop, and are soft and buttery if prepared properly.

The Chinese word for fish sounds like “abundance.” Served whole with head and tail, it symbolizes a life of plenty for the newlyweds.

Whole steamed fish (清蒸海上鮮) is a staple of big Chinese meals, usually done with soy sauce and ginger. It’s so simple yet so tasty and tender.

It may be a bit disconcerting for those who aren’t used to it to see the entire fish, including head and eyeballs staring back, but the nice thing at banquets is the servers whisk the plate away, debone the fish, and then portion it out individually.

Roasted pigeon (紅燒乳鴿) is one of my favourite banquet dishes. Succulent and finger-licking good. Yes, the heads are included in the presentation.

Pigeons are served to wish the newlyweds a peaceful future as they start this part of their lives together.

After this is the homestretch. I call it the “filler” dishes, because if you haven’t eaten enough yet for whatever reason (i.e. don’t like seafood), now is your chance to fill up with rice and noodles.

We don’t have a photo of the honeymoon fried rice (甜蜜鴛鴦炒飯) but it’s very traditional near the end of a meal like this. It’s a bed of fried rice topped with a tomato sauce with pork slivers on one side, and a cream sauce with shrimp on the other.

The sauces are displayed in a yin-yang shape to represent a harmony in dualism.

The long noodles in the shrimp dumplings in chicken broth (上湯水餃麵) symbolize longevity.

I barely saw dessert because I think we were already at the door saying goodbye to guests, but there were two sweet pastries (美點雙輝) and sweetened soup with lily, lotus and dessert dumpling (蓮子百合湯丸). I saw a really pretty platter of fresh fruit too including watermelon and dragon fruit.

Desserts wish the newlyweds a sweet life together. Lily stands for 100 years of harmony in the marriage; lotus seeds symbolize fertility and many children.

Whew. In writing this all out, it seems like a lot of food, but in between speeches and all that wedding stuff, it’s actually paced very well. I sure hope no one went home hungry!

Victoria Chinese Restaurant, 1088 Melville St., Vancouver, (604) 669-8383.