When I was a child, because there were many brothers and sisters at home, I didn't have many opportunities to eat wedding banquets, but I also had the experience of happily grabbing meat with adults. After graduating from college, I basically didn't attend the "eat ten bowls" wedding banquet in my hometown. Therefore, the first wedding banquet I attended in Guangdong was very rewarding and impressive.
It was my wife's colleague's wedding reception, and our whole family was invited. Different from attending the wedding banquet in my hometown when I was a child, the wedding banquet in Guangdong is in the evening and there are invitations. A few days before the wedding reception, we received a beautiful wedding invitation with a short paragraph on the inside page, which was an invitation from a couple's parents to their children's wedding, including the auspicious date and place of the wedding reception. Our invitation clearly States that this is an invitation to our family.
On the night of the wedding reception, according to the instructions of our neighbors, we found a big red envelope, put the gift money into it as usual, and left our names on the back of the red envelope. My wife asked me to write, so I picked up a signature pen-a disposable pen that was popular at that time, and made a change. On the front of the red envelope, I wrote four big words "I was overjoyed at my wedding" before signing it. To this end, the wife also complained for a long time, fearing that the rules of the local people would be broken.
Holding a red envelope, our family came to the restaurant, handed a red envelope to a couple at the gate full of festive atmosphere, and found a designated seat under the guidance of the MC. The host family specially arranged for people who knew each other to sit together. Everyone at our table is an acquaintance who speaks Mandarin. Everyone is eating melon seeds, peanuts and candy, waiting for the wedding reception to begin. Looking at dozens of tables and hundreds of people gathered in the banquet hall, I picked up a pink menu on the table and pretended to be watching it. The menu is actually ten dishes and one soup, and the first dish, "Golden Pig Good News", has aroused my interest. I've always heard that roast suckling pigs in Guangdong are very distinctive. It's a whole suckling pig. Is today's "golden pig" a roast suckling pig?
With the expectation of "golden pig announcing good news", I have been waiting patiently for the start of the wedding reception and chatting with acquaintances at the same table one by one. However, unexpectedly, this kind of waiting is really too long. I thought it wouldn't start at 6: 30, but it should start at 7: 30. As a result, before 7: 30, my daughter and two other children were very impatient. The melon seeds, peanuts and even sweets on the table have been wiped out. Everyone is speculating. Some people say that eight o'clock is a good day, so we must start. As a result, it didn't start at eight o'clock, but it didn't start until eight twenty-eight.
The wedding is simple. After a few slogan-like opening remarks, the MC made a vivid opening. Amid the noise of gongs and drums, a long team carrying golden pigs appeared and put them on each table in order. The scene was so exciting. Looking at the roast golden suckling pig that was just placed on our table, I remembered the scene when I was a child, when I was beating pig grass to feed sows and a dozen litters of piglets lying on the pigsty and nursing. That night, there were at least 60 tables, and there was a suckling pig on each table, which meant eating five or six litters of piglets.
Just as I was thinking about how such a suckling pig could finish eating, the already hungry deskmate greeted us, stretched out chopsticks, picked up a golden suckling pig skin from the suckling pig's back, ordered the seasoning from the small plate on the table, stuffed it into his mouth, and said while eating, "Yummy, yummy, let's eat quickly." When many pairs of chopsticks reach the roast suckling pig, I dare not fall behind. I took a piece from the waist of the roast suckling pig with chopsticks and put it in my daughter's bowl, telling her to eat quickly.
It turned out that a seemingly complete roast suckling pig not only removed its internal organs, but also was separated and cut by the chef with a sharp knife. However, the skills of separation and cutting are really superb, which makes people mistakenly think that it is a whole pig. Many people have few skins. It is very appropriate to describe that the guests at our table ate roast suckling pig that night. Before the second course was served, the little suckling pig, which had just been roasted golden, had been eaten to the skin and skeleton of glistening. I know, if I don't start, I may not eat pigskin. So, I aimed at a few small squares left on the pig's ass. I held out two pieces of chopsticks, ordered some sugar, gave a daughter, and put the roast suckling pig with belt meat and sugar on this chopstick in my mouth.
I once ate it, and it was a taste that I will never forget. The crispy and golden pork belly slices baked by the chef should be described as "melting in the mouth". The mixed taste of skin, pork oil and sugar is really indescribable. It should be after the third course, because the big porcelain plate with the suckling pig occupied too much space, it was taken down by the waiter, cut into small pieces in the kitchen, and put two large plates on the table again. However, every dish is also a boutique, and the newly cut roast suckling pig is basically unattended. As a result, at the end of the party, everyone packed separately. It is said that stewed radish or porridge the next day is the top grade.
The ending of the wedding banquet is also different from my hometown. In my hometown, the last bowl of ten bowls is roast pork. As soon as the roast pork is served, it means that all the dishes are served today. The last dish of Cantonese people is green vegetables, and then it ends with a big pot of sweet soup, which means sweetness and beauty. In my hometown, when the wedding reception is not long, the host will set off a lot of firecrackers, and only when the firecrackers sound can the guests leave the table. On the other hand, Cantonese people are not so picky about it. Many people got up and left without even eating green vegetables or drinking red dates and lotus seed soup. While we were still tasting sweet soup, many tables were empty.
Time, eating a wedding banquet only means eating suckling pigs, and of course it also includes the opening time for too long. Many years later, as long as I go to the wedding banquet, I usually arrive at 7: 30 and never go early; Once the banquet is opened and the roast suckling pig is served, it won't eat the suckling pork at the bottom of the pig. One is on the back and the other is in the waist, which is standard.