Guest Blogger Katie: A Taiwanese Wedding Banquet, Part I

(Editor’s note: The following was written by my sister Katie, with some minor editing by yours truly. I cannot be held responsible for content or confusing statements.)

At my age, most of my friends are married hence I don’t have much chance to go to weddings.  So when my friends and former colleagues Tungwei and Mei were getting married, there was no way that I would miss it.

Odd as it seems, most Taiwanese weddings take place at banquet halls.  This shouldn’t come as a surprise as Chinese people take food very seriously, much like a religion; therefore, restaurants are our places of worship.  To avoid lengthy discussion of Taiwanese customs, we will limit the scope of this article only to what we ate on that particular Saturday afternoon at the wedding banquet of Tungwei and Mei.

The happy bride and groom

Before the banquet starts, the menu listing the entrées is promptly placed at the center of each table. There are four appetizers, seven main courses, two desserts and a fruit platter.

Banquet Menu

The first entrée is “Flowers Blossoming under the Full Moon” (花好月圓).  It is fried tang yuan (湯圓), or sticky rice balls, coated with lightly sweetened peanut powder, dashed with raisins.  Chinese people like the round shape because it has no sharp corners or edges.  It symbolizes that everything will fall into place nicely.  Because it is the first dish after a long wait, the tang yuans went rather quickly as shown in this picture.

What's Left of the Sticky Rice Balls

Then comes an appetizer platter with roasted piglet, drunken chicken, pork gelatin roll, five flavored squid, and mysterious appetizer #5 (I didn’t get a chance to taste it).  These are cold dishes that require advanced preparation. They’re also served cold so that hungry guests can eat quickly without worrying about burning their mouths with hot food. (Ed note: So logical! I like it!)

Appetizer Platter

There are two other appetizers, Scallop with Broccoli and Fried Shrimp Cakes.  Give me some rice, yum yum yum.  For wedding banquets, they don’t usually serve rice so that the guests can focus on eating all of the courses instead of filling up with starch.

Scallop with Brocolli

Shrimp Cakes

To Be Continued…

Inaugural Guest Blog: Here’s Katie!

This is Katie, the scientist’s much elder sister, living in Taiwan.  As I haven’t gathered up enough courage to write my own blog, I figured that I can get my feet wet by being a guest blogger.  Even though I am not an expert foodie like my sister, I will try to write about some local favorites or customs in Taiwan.

My friend came to visit me at work here in Sanchung (三重), a Taipei “suburb,” earlier this week. I took her to a local shop here.  It is called Talent Show Pig Feet and Lurow Rice (五燈獎豬腳魯肉飯).  The lady shop owner was a contestant in a talent show who won many times in a row.  The shop is quite famous and has been featured on many TV shows and in magazines.

As the name of the shop indicates, it sells mainly two things: Pigs Feet and Lurow Rice.  The food is served cafeteria style.  You can order pigs feet or Lurow rice first, then move on to select from veggie dishes and three kinds of soup for a complete meal.

The whole meal (clockwise): soup, pigs feet, Lurow Rice, stir-fried greens, cabbage.

Pigs feet is used in many traditional Taiwanese dishes.  Nursing mothers eat Pig Feet & Peanut Soup to give their babies more milk.  People who consider themselves in a string of bad luck eat Pigs Feet with Long Life Noodles to give their luck a boost.  It is also a favorite among the ladies because it is reportedly rich in collagen, which makes skin more supple.  The skin has been stewed for many hours until all the fat has melt away and the meat can be separated easily from the bone.  One serving of pigs feet cost NT80 (around 2.40 USD).  The portion shown in the picture is two servings.

Pigs feet

Lurow (Stewed Pork) Rice is one of the most common foods here in Taiwan.  Ground pork (and sometimes pork belly) is stewed with soy sauce and various spices, simmered for hours until it is ready to melt in your mouth.  Put the Lurow on top of rice or cooked noodles, and it becomes a delicious meal in an instant!!  It is almost a Taiwanese version of spaghetti.  The Lurow rice here cost NT20 per bowl (around 60 cents)

Prize-winning Lurow Rice

Our meal for two, complete with Pigs Feet (NTD 160) + Lurow Rice (NTD 20) + two veggie dishes (NTD 60) + soup (NTD20), totalled NTD 260, less than 8 USD.  This shop offers disposable chopsticks and paper bowls.  The dining room is not quite as clean as fast food restaurants, but it is acceptable.  As for the taste, many of my friends said that they would come back to visit me just so they could go to the shop again.

Bon appetite!