A few weeks ago, I attended the wedding of a good friend. He asked me to take pictures of the food, since he knows I’ve shared past wedding dinners on this blog, and I was happy to oblige. The reception was a delicious 11 course traditional Chinese banquet (plus cake!).
Believe it or not, this is actually the first Chinese wedding banquet Mr. K and I have attended together (excluding our own). All the other weddings we’ve attended where a Chinese banquet was a possibility, the couple chose to have an American-style reception. So Mr. K was particularly excited, having fallen in love with Chinese wedding banquets after experiencing it at our wedding.
The wedding ceremony took place at Wayfarers Chapel, a glass church in Rancho Palos Verdes. Overlooking the ocean, it was the perfect backdrop for a lovely wedding and made for great photos.
The reception was held at Atlantic Seafood & Dim Sum Restaurant.
I only wish the lighting had been better to properly capture all the amazing food.
Course 1: Roasted Suckling Pig and Marinated Jellyfish Salad
This was one of my favorites. I loved the thin and crispy roasted pork skin and the marinated jellyfish had a delightful crunch and snap to it.
Course 2: Deep Fried Crab Claws
Course 3: Red Flower Clam and Shrimp
Funny tidbit, our table was quite intrigued by the red flower clam (紅花蚌), which had a very unique texture unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Apparently we weren’t the only ones who were curious as to what we were eating. At one point, a guest from another table came over and asked us what was in the dish and none of us knew. He then made the observation that he had just asked three tables of food bloggers what the item was and no one knew. For shame!
I was finally able to figure it out by looking at a menu and with a little help translating from my mom. I still am not sure what a red flower clam is. This is just the literal translation of the Chinese words, I’m guessing it has a different English official name.
Course 4: Crab and Bird’s Nest Soup
Course 5: Braised Abalone and Sea Cucumber
Course 6: Peking Duck
Course 7: Baked Lobster
By this time, everyone was getting quite full. There was quite a generous amount of lobster in this dish but our group barely touched it.
Course 8: Steamed Whole Fish
Course 9: Dried Scallop and Egg White Fried Rice
Course 10: Fried Mochi and Lotus Paste with Salted Egg Yolk Pastries
Course 11: Almond Soup with Black Sesame Rice Balls
This was a favorite amongst our table and a perfect way to end the night. Sweet rice balls is a traditional wedding banquet dish but I’ve never had it with a sweet almond soup before.
And after all that, there was still wedding cake!
They had three flavors: taro, fruit, and chestnut. Our table got the fruit filled cake. I loved how spongy and light this cake was.
We had so much fun and left extremely full. I love attending weddings and it’s so much better when you’re celebrating the love of two people you really care about.
Atlantic Seafood & Dim Sum Restaurant
500 N. Atlantic Blvd., Suite 200
Monterey Park, CA 91754
https://www.atlantic-seafood.net/
Awwww, it’s nice to see pics from KFP’s wedding. So bummed we missed it. Looked like a great time and feast!
I’m bummed you missed out too =(
Congrats to your friends! Asian wedding banquets are my favorite! If you don’t like one course, there’s always another one following it. Plus, there’s usually lobster which I almost never order.
For such ‘poor’ lighting, your pictures still turn out very bright and clear! The power of an SLR (plus some photoshop?)! I applaud that your pictures almost always look like natural light photos!
the room was well-lit, but they had some colors because of mood lighting. but yes, the slr and changing the white balance helped
The feast looked so amazing! It was nice to see different types of dishes. The roast suckling pig with jellyfish was an interesting combination. I’ve only been to one Chinese wedding reception. One of my friends married a Vietnamese woman but their reception was Chinese style.
it was quite filling! Usually the first course is always a cold platter with jellyfish and some kind of protein, though this is the first time I’ve had the roast suckling. loved the skin!
that was fun! so nice to meet you this evening!
so nice to finally meet you!!
Wow! The food look so delicious! No one touched the lobsters?
I wish
I were there!But the salted egg with Mochi is a weard combination.
a few of us packed to-go boxes, so it didn’t go to waste. actually the salted egg was with the lotus pastry. I couldn’t figure out the filling for the mochi. it was something like a coconut or nut paste.
Ooh now you’ve got me curious about the red flower clams, too. Do you happen to know what they were called in Chinese? I wanna do some research XD
that was the literal translation. hehe. in chinese it was written as ??? it had a crispy texture to it. quite interesting. gah! okay for some reason the comment section wont display chinese characters. i’ve updated the actual post to include the chinese character for the red clam.
How cool! I’ve never been to a Chinese wedding banquet but everything looks so good. The first of my friends just started getting married and I hear them complain about how expensive regular wedding meals are I can only imagine how much such a feast would be!
I’ve always wanted to try jellyfish as everyone I know who has eaten it loves it but am wary of preparing it myself. Any restaurants in SD you would recommend for jellyfish? Or have you ever had the prepared ones they sell at markets too?
wedding food is def expensive and especially the chinese banquet, which is probably one of the reasons why most of my friends chose not to do it. but the food is so delicious! you know i’ve only had jellyfish when it’s served as a cold platter for banquet-style, so I don’t really know where to recommend. I had it at my banquet at Pearl Chinese restaurant and I liked it. I imagine they must have a smaller dish version available. I’ve never prepared my own.
wow. I love Chinese weddings. This one looked super fun and really had some interesting eats. Thanks for sharing.
i love them too!