Super cheena wedding dinner

My colleague from the IT department got married on Sunday and he invited all of us to his wedding dinner. Initially I was reluctant to, coz I reckoned I would be bleeding bored since I won't understand what was going on. But if I don't go, I still have to give him ang pow so I reckon what the heck, I'll just go for a good meal.

It turned out to be quite amusing coz it was one of the most cheena wedding dinners I have ever been to. And I can assure you I have been to *pretty* cheena ones (almost all I attended from my mom's side of the family are quite hilarious). It has the standard reception table where you sign your well wishes in a cheena looking book for the couple, which is flanked by a 'soft focus' taken photo of the couple. The thing with HK weddings is that the couple will stand on stage, and people will take turns to go up on stage to take picture with them! Wahaha! Machiam celebrity.

The funny thing about HK wedding dinners (I don't recall if I have mentioned before) is that everyone at the table will toast 'GAN BEI' before tucking into the dish. This happens for EVERY DISH (except those that have been distributed into individual portions). That's actually my fave part of the whole dinner coz it just cracks me up plus everytime we say 'gan bei' we get to eat a new dish. ;)

My colleague was obviously very happy on his big day and he looked more awake than I have ever seen him in the office (Heh!). However, I was a bit appalled coz he had glitter in his hair and a bit on his face too! That's a bit much aint it? As if that's not bling enough, he had a SILVER VEST and a SILVER tie on inside his black suit. It's not even sleek subtle silver, it's like cardboard glitter silver. Like crunchy silver. Gah I don't know how to describe but it was quite 'ge tai' lah.

Then got the usual games, touching speeches, very bad canto techno music (argh!) and the very unnecessary photo slide presentation. Does anyone really care how the couple look like when they were young? It's so unnecessarily embarrassing, what with the geeky hair, 80s specs and unglamourous clothes. You want your guests to remember you in your sharp suit and lovely wedding gown, not you in your school uniform 20 years ago. Frankly, all everyone wants, is to wish them well, take one picture with them (to prove they were there in case of missing ang pows heh), stuff their faces and get the hell out of there. I think Chinese wedding banquets have gone way too far.

The food was excellent - a grand total of 13 courses! Scallops, sharksfin, suckling pig, fish, chicken, noodles, fried rice, vegetables, crab roll etc etc. Oh and when they served the first dish, instead of some cheesy Kitaro track favoured by Singaporean Chinese restaurants, they played this cartoonish tune. I was like WTF at first but my colleagues around me kindly explained that that was the theme song to a local cartoon series featuring a pig. Ha! These ppl have a sick sense of humour I swear. Ah well, anyway the tasty food made my trip worthwhile and at least I was entertained for a couple of hours! :D