My First Chinese Wedding

I went to my first Chinese Wedding last week. It was more a wedding party than an actual reception. It was held in a hotel ballroom in Zhuji. There were a couple hundred people there to see the vice principle of my school get married. Me and my other foreign teacher friends were the only non-Chinese. There were many different acts during the party where friends and family got up on stage and gave a speech or sang a song. And of course there was lots of food. Check it out.

This is duck tongue. Yes, duck tongue. It was an appetizer. It was chewy and rubbery but once you bit off a piece it tasted kind of like duck. 

Close up, it really looks like a tongue.

Steamed and flavored dough. This was another appetizer. I'm not totally sure what it was, but my Chinese friend told me it was dough. It was steamed and marinated in some sauce. Tasted pretty good.

Fried prawn. Full shell on, fried in some kind of garlic sauce with sesame seeds. The shells are so soft you can eat the prawns whole without peeling them, even the heads. One of my favorite dishes from the night. 

LOBSTER. I've had a lot of crab in China, but this was my first time eating Lobster. Really soft and tender. People at my table didn't seem to crazy about it, so I ate about half the dish. Another one of my favorites

MUTTON. Always one of my favorite dishes in China. Usually I have it fresh off a BBQ, which is the best way to cook it in my opinion. This was cooked in a kitchen so it didn't have the same flavor you get from a BBQ. Still very juicy and tender.

Money Shot. Falling off the bone good. Pistachios on my plate were a snack. I had a couple.

This is a fish soup I believe. It didn't eat it so I have no comment. Sorry.

A whole fish. Bones and all, everybody picks away at it with their chopsticks. Very soft and tasty. Cooked in a ginger sauce.

I'm not sure what this dish is called but it's a very popular dish in China. There are fish balls, prawns and pork wrapped in thin tofu "paper". The fish balls are basically just fish meat rolled up into a meatball. The pork tofu wrap is really delicious.

 Seared beef. Soft and chewy and really tasty.

Here is a tofu soup. I didn't try it but Chinese people love it.

Here we all are in the middle of dinner. Gnawing away at our food, drinking, laughing, chatting, but mostly eating.

I went to Suzhou this past weekend. Suzhou is a small city outside of Shanghai with a bright nightlife and international cuisine. While walking the streets for dinner one night my friends and I stumbled across a Halal-Chinese restaurant. Since one of my friends is Muslim we decided to check it out. It was empty when we walked in but people started to show up once we were in there. Maybe foreigners attract customers? I definitely feel "famous" as a white male here, but that's another topic for another post. Anyways, overall the food was very good. tasted just like normal Chinese food I've had but obviously there wasn't any pork. The owner was really hospitable and it seemed like he lived and worked there with his family and his brother's family as well. Check out the photos.

Outside of the restaurant. Notice the Arab text above the Chinese.

Empty but clean.

The wives cooking in the kitchen.

Owner and husband doing some of the cooking as well.

Small restaurants like these usually have photo's of the dishes on the walls. You just point to what you want.

Beef stock soup. Complimentary with our meals. Salty and warm. Delicious

Sauteed beef and spring onions. 

This was some kind of spiced ground beef. Interesting flavor, very good.

Vegetable fried rice.

Here is a video from the streets of Suzhou. That's mutton leg.