Zhuhai Miscellaneous Notes (37) Eating in Guangdong-Drinking Wedding Banquets

The happiest thing when I was a child was to have a wedding banquet with adults. In my hometown, drinking wedding banquet is called "just ten bowls" or "eating ten bowls", which means there are ten bowls of big dishes to eat at the wedding banquet. Because the people in the mountains live scattered and the accommodation conditions are limited, the wedding banquet in my hometown usually invites guests to dinner at noon. Guests from far and near leave in the morning, eat and drink at noon and come back in the afternoon. Only a few guests who can't return that day stay and stay.

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 college, I basically didn't attend the "eat ten bowls" wedding banquet in my hometown. So the first wedding banquet I attended in Guangdong was very rewarding and impressive.

It was my wife's colleague's wedding reception and invited our family. Different from attending a 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 a wedding invitation from a couple's parents to their children, including the auspicious date and place of the wedding reception. Our invitation clearly States that we are invited to our home.

On the evening 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 popular disposable pen at that time, and made a difference. On the front of the red envelope, it was written in four big characters: "Newly married and overjoyed" before signing. To this end, my 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 familiar people to sit together. All the people at our table are acquaintances who speak 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 have a look. The menu is actually ten dishes and one soup, and the first dish, "Golden Pig Good News", 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 reporting good news", I have been waiting patiently for the start of the wedding reception and chatting with acquaintances at the same table. Unexpectedly, however, 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 line of teams carrying golden pigs appeared and put them on each table in order. The scene was so exciting. I looked at the roast golden suckling pig that was just placed on our table, and I remembered the scene when I was a child, when I was beating pig grass and feeding sows, and more than a dozen piglets were lying in the pigsty to feed. There were at least 60 tables that night, each with a suckling pig, which means eating five or six litters of piglets.

Just as I was thinking about how to finish eating such a suckling pig, the 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, "Delicious, delicious, let's eat quickly." Many pairs of chopsticks come to roast suckling pigs, and I dare not lag behind. I took a piece from the waist of the roast suckling pig with chopsticks and put it in my daughter's bowl to tell her to eat quickly.

It turned out that a seemingly complete roast suckling pig was not only eviscerated, but also cut open by the chef with a sharp knife, but the cutting technique was really superb, which made people mistakenly think it was a whole pig. Many people have few skins. It is very apt to describe that the guests at our table ate roast suckling pig that night. Before the second course was served, the golden suckling pig had eaten only the glistening meat and skeleton. I know, if I don't start, I may not eat pigskin. So, I aimed at the 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 skin, meat and sugar on the chopsticks in my mouth.

I once ate it, and it was a taste that I will never forget. The crispy golden pork slices baked by the chef with belt meat should be described by the word "melting in the mouth". The mixed taste of pigskin, pork oil and sugar is really unspeakable. It should be after the third course, because the big porcelain plate with the little 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. However, every dish is also a boutique, and the newly cut roast suckling pig is basically unattended. As a result, the party ended and everyone packed separately. It is said that stewed radish or boiled porridge the next day is the top grade.

The ending of the wedding banquet is also different from my hometown. The last bowl of ten bowls in my hometown 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 a large pot of sweet soup is served, which means sweet and beautiful. When the wedding reception in my hometown is not long, the host family will set off a lot of firecrackers. Only when the firecrackers ring can the guests leave the table. Guangdong people are not so particular 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. After many years, I experienced that as long as I went to the wedding banquet, I usually arrived at 7: 30 and never went early; As soon as the banquet is opened and the roast suckling pig is served, it will not eat the suckling pig at the bottom of the pig, one on the back and the other in the waist. This is the standard.