Ever Wondered What an Asian Wedding in Australia is Like? Tradition, Culture, Red and LOTS of Food!

Traditional Asian wedding receptions in Sydney all seem to have one thing in common - PLENTY OF FOOD. Why is that? If my parents are anything to go by (they're Asian), the first thing they comment on when they come home from an Asian wedding is the food. Often I'll ask "how was the wedding?" (as a general question, not directed at the food!) and the typical response will be "Food wasn't great, so overall not a great wedding". What?! What about the love, the romance and the ambience? Nope...it's all about the food.

I think it is a cultural thing that Asian weddings must have plenty of food and especially food that is auspicious or will bring the couple luck. I've been to a few Asian weddings in my time here in Australia and they all try to stuff you with more food than you can eat...what was that? Challenge ACCEPTED!

Let's check out our table

Once we arrived past the customary wishing well and guest book signing, we were seated at a table that looked very promising - I was starving at this point as we had rushed straight from work.

Every table had a bottle of red wine and Hennessy. I'm not a whiskey / scotch drinker so I wasn't a fan but I know it's typical at Asian weddings to have some sort of whiskey / scotch, often it is Hennessey or Johnny Walker...Asian favourites!

Most of you will know that red is a lucky colour in Asian culture and red wine is often the drink of choice, and more times than not it is the ONLY choice at these restaurants. Example: another girl and I wanted some white wine so we asked the waiter and she replied with "White?! Only red here!" haha.

An endless banquet begins

This was the menu and I studied it carefully as it would be nearly 2 hours after being seated that we would get food - I was at the point where I was feeling a little delirious but luckily we were saved with the first dish!

Suckling Pig and BBQ Meats

Stuffed Scallop w/ Mashed Taro

Shark Fin Soup

Note this is often not real shark fin which is extremely expensive and often illegal to source. They use a imitation shark fin which is just made from crab meat, mushrooms and sometimes scallop.

Bring on the seafood!

These Asian wedding banquets typically always have lobster or crab and we were in for a treat tonight!

Braised Lobster

Braised Abalone & Sea Cucumber

Steamed Coral Trout w/ Ginger and Shallot

....and we finished with a bit of poultry just to round it out

Crispy Skin Chicken w/ Garlic

I totally forgot to take photos but we also had some E-Fu noodles (basically an egg noodle chow mein) and some fried rice:

We're done right? No...there's always room for dessert apparently

Red Bean Soup

DOUBLE HAPPINESS CAKE - I don't know why it's called this but hey it sounded so happy I had to try one

My fav was this seasme ball, crunchy not like the soft ones at yum cha.

Traditional Fruit Platter

Is anyone alive or are we all in a food coma?

This is what I asked myself over and over but I reminded myself how hungry I was and how much I was complaining earlier so I made sure to enjoy myself and eat as much as I could !! Hard life isn't it? ;)

Overall it was a great wedding, I hadn't been to an Asian wedding in a while and I missed the frantic pace of the banquet. The dishes came out one after the other and literally as soon as the last bite was taken your bowl/plate was swooped up by a waiter and a new dish plonked in front of you - I could get used to this.

Of course there was wedding cake...what was this, course number #15?! Haha

I hope you guys enjoyed following me on this wedding food journey and let me know if you've had a similar experience or what typical Asian weddings are like in your country!

@phamished xx

All photos in this post are original and taken by me on my Sony RX100