Bring me bring me bring me please oh please oh please

*Pushing Gellchom out of the way!*

Me! Me! Me!

lisa

Hahaaa!

I am not sure you want to come.

I have no idea what they are serving for dinner:

Cocktail and Hordeours?

Main Lobster? al La Francise?

Dungen Crab Meat ?

Stirred Fried Pishuels,?

I hope they all taste like chicken. :-)

dcarch

Moe and I were guests at a few Chinese Banquets and they were amazing. So many courses. All special. Mostly dishes that we had never had before.

Ann

My DH and I were guests at the Chinese wedding banquet of a colleague of mine a couple of years ago. We were served, course after course, non-stop from 7:30 til midnight. It was an amazing meal.
J

That's a nice simple menu for a Chinese banquet. The pig, BTW, probably comes from a deli, as it's a standard offering at Chinese delis. Any time you see roasted meats - char siu pork, duck, etc. - as appetizers in a Chinese restaurant, they are sourced outside from local Chinese delis.

This is a nice chance to dress up and enjoy yourself. Have fun! Bring your camera or use your cellphone, you'll want to take pix of the platters before they get demolished, LOL.

I was a fun evening. Food just was beggaring description!

Whole roasted suckling pig with soft crusty skin just came out from the fire pit.
Pound and a half lobster from the tank for each guest.
Perfectly delicate crispy baked free-range young chicken.
You all have enjoyed Chilean See Bass, a very expensive fish, but the taste is well worth the price, but have you tasted Chilean Sea Bass prepared live from the tank?

The continuing floor show made the evening so special. They really know how to throw a wonderful birthday party.

dcarch

Here is a link that might be useful: Floor Show

It seems alot of food but it's actually not. Each course is served in a large plate and placed it in the center of the table. Each plate is normally served for 10 people (1 table seats for 10). Basically, each person will take 1 large spoon portion of the dish course. Therefore, the course portion here is 1 large spoon size, not a whole plate size like here in the US. It's similar with the way you would serve yourself at potluck parties. With so many food to chose and taste, you'd take a spoon or two of each dish. And before you know it, your plate is full of all sort of goodies.

One thing I don't like about these typical Asian banquets is that they normally bring the rice toward the end of the course list. Not necessarily there's anything wrong with it, I guess it's just all depends with how we're used to eat our meals.

In our normal every day meal, rice is the main accompanied dish that is served with all the other dishes. It's sort of like how bread is served here in the US, with other food. At these banquets, they do it backwards and you'd ending up eating the rice by itself toward the end of the meal. It's just really a strange way to eat fried rice for us. I feel the same way with the US restaurants when they bring out just the bread to snack on while we're waiting for our plates to arrive. I normally just take my portion of the bread and leave on the side until my plate (main course) arrives and eat altogether.

With my family, when we make reservation for a banquet, we always make a special request to serve fried rice within the first courses after the appetizers. Our guests like it this way too.

Just so people know the historical/cultural background: rice was traditionally never served at banquets. But I've noticed that rule has broken down in America, as so many customs have.

And when Asians order, it's white rice, not fried rice. Fried rice is like chow mein - a dish unto itself, not a side starch, in the eyes of Chinese. Think of it as the difference between a plain baked potato and a jazzed-up potato salad with diced chicken and ham in it. They're both good, but one will complement an elaborate entree whereas the other competes with it.

Oh that pig! What I'd give to just have a little of that crackling skin...

I was told:

China is a multi-cultural society. There are something like 4,000 local dialects, and as many customs, traditions, and cuisine styles.

There is a somewhat common practice amongst many Chinese cultures. In a formal banquet as well as in inviting guests, rice, noodle and bun type of starchy dishes are not to be served in the beginning of a meal.

The reason being that it is considered bad form and stingy. Starch dishes are generally inexpensive and filling. They are to be served only at the very end just in case you are still hungry, not at the beginning to fill you up so you will eat less expensive food later.

fearlessem, OMG, that skin! I don't know what to say, to die for ? or to live for?

You know why it's called cracklin? When It came out you could still hear it cracklin.

dcarch

Chinese is multicultural, but the rulers are the Han, actually an ethnic minority. Northerners traditionally ate wheat, Southerners ate rice because it was so difficult to transport non-local foods. What we know as 'banquet' food is what was served in the Imperial Court in Peking (now Beijing) in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is quite different than Chinese home cooking or Chinese restaurant/deli food.

In the late 60's and 70's it was a big thing to consider the Chinese diet 'healthy' because they ate very little meat, lots of veggies, stirfrying them and eating with a lot of rice.

But in truth, when I married into a Chinese/Portugese family, I was startled to find they ate as much meat as they could. Every family dinner or celebration came with every kind of meat as far as the eye could see, with maybe one little lone veggie bowl tucked off to the side.

Starch and veggies are cheap, stirfrying is only one of many techniques used by the Chinese, and meat is, as dcarch points out, a status symbol. Asians are traditionally very, very big on status symbols! It has to do with presenting 'good face' to the world.

Both of you are pretty correct about Chinese food and about the rice. Although, when it comes to fried rice, there are many versions of it. The deluxe, with all sort of items mixed in it, can be eaten by itself. But, the simple fried rice, rice stir fried in hot oil with minimal ingredients, can be accompanied with other dishes. Yes, it's the same with steamed rice too.

Although, I'm Vietnamese, my family roots are from the North. The North Vietnamese are deeply influenced by the Han in food and culture. Although, many Vietnamese would deny this, history showed that part of North Vietnam and Central Vietnam were once a Han region (thousands of years ago). When I found that out, I understood why so many dishes my mom made were similar to Southern Chinese cuisine.

This thread makes me hungry again!