Chinese Wedding

Saturday night Kyle and I attended our first Chinese wedding reception. Eu Jin, works for Kyle and graciously invited us to be part of the celebration. Evidently the wedding activities go on for well over a week. Last weekend the bride's family hosted a party for her side and this weekend was hosted by his family. It was at a local hotel ballroom and probably had 250+ people in attendance. The invitation stated there was a cocktail reception starting at 6:30 and dinner at 7:00 SHARP. We arrived a few minutes after 7:00 because our GPS gave us a few wrong turns. We were running in so we would not be late. Yeah right. They invited us to our seats in the ballroom at 7:15 and it was not until 8:00 that most other people rolled in. They started a slide show presentation with all their engagement photos around 8:15 and the bride and groom were announced at 8:30 or so. So much for "sharp".

The main event is the food. They serve a 8-10 course meal (see menu) and between some of the courses were some toasts from the groom's parents, another slide show and champagne toast in Chinese. Then the bride and groom, plus family, travel to each table to toast with guests. It is traditional to toast "Yom Seng". Which is like cheers. We sat with some of Kyle's other collogues so it was nice.

By the time the food came I was starving. I first had some chicken with cashews. Pretty safe. Then I took a BIG bite of "noodles". It looked like a clear,rice fettucini noodle with a chili sauce. Not exactly. Once in my mouth I knew I was in big trouble. The crunchy, yet jelly consistency was bad enough but the overpowering fish taste was enough to make we gag on the spot. So bite number two politely went into the cloth napkin. Thai Style Jellyfish. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

Considering I only indulged in maybe three of the courses I would have done ANYTHING to stop at Taco Cabana on the way home!

Overall a great experience. Eu Jin and his wife are such a lovely couple and it was fun to experience something so different than a typical American wedding.