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Post by hwinpp on Jul 24, 2010 5:33:40 GMT
Last Saturday I was invited to the dinner reception of the sister of one of my colleagues. I didn't know her personally but as each sibling gets one table of ten to invite it happens frequently that you get invited by complete strangers. The only thing that you should do is give the bridal couple an ang pow or red packet containing some cash. But only if you're older. So there I was, invited to a wedding at a time when the wedding season was all but over. It turned out to be a huge affair, with just over 700 guests giving the bride's father big face. Problem is that he still has three daughters he needs to marry off... The entrance to Mondial Not all tables were fully occupied yet Friends filling up the free seats And finally, the food! Different kinds of spring rolls Excellent beef larb (exceptionally good) Baby octopus with sesame seeds Jellied chicken on fresh steamed Spanish mustard greens Herbal chicken soup Hidden prawns (hidden because fried in batter) Minced herbal pork soup
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Post by hwinpp on Jul 24, 2010 6:02:12 GMT
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Post by hwinpp on Jul 24, 2010 6:15:38 GMT
Then, more food! Steamed garoupa topped with ginger and herbs (my personal number 1) Hainanese chicken rice Tong Yam Fried noodles, a must at every Chinese wedding, means long life Last four dishes mentioned above The funny thing about these weddings is that as soon as the guests have finished eating they leave! So I was gone soon after. Next wedding season starts when the rains stop in November so I do have some time to work off the excess flab
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2010 6:43:47 GMT
I was trying to see if there was anything I might not like, but I'm afraid I would have been digging into everything with the best of them.
How long did the meal last? Remembering the wedding I attended in Singapore, I think we were at the table from 6 pm to 11 pm.
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Post by hwinpp on Jul 24, 2010 7:32:48 GMT
I'm sure you would be digging in with the best of 'em.
It's funny here. You come in and have to fill up a table of 10. Once 10 people are present, the food starts arriving (and never before the last one is seated). Then the meal goes through its courses and right after dessert everybody disappears. No staying on for boozing or dancing.
I was at a cousin's wedding in KL in 2006, also Chinese style, but the party didn't end until 5 in the morning.
BTW, I was at a different wedding the next day, I was a stand- in for the groom's father and got a stand- in 'mother' by my side. Will post those later. That was strange because I'd never been involved in the actual ceremony before (and included one incredible faux- pas which got everybody present to guffaw in laughter).
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 24, 2010 7:55:00 GMT
It's hard to type now that I've drooled all over my keyboard.
You have presented some pretty fantastic food displays in the past, but this one is up there in the dream-meal class! Was it all as good as it looks?
I love the expressions on the faces of the couple in 3rd picture -- they're awfully pleased!
As usual, some questions --
The title of the thread is a Cambodian Wedding Dinner and of course you are in Cambodia. But further down you show the noodles and say they're "a must at every Chinese wedding". Also, the food looks to my uneducated eye to be Chinese. Were the bridal couple of Chinese ancestry?
I'm assuming this family is more modern than traditional, based on how the bridal party is dressed -- correct? Also, speaking of clothes, all the women seem really dressed up, but hardly any of the men. Is that because it's a hot climate, or because life is simply more casual?
It's mind-boggling to think of 700 people simultaneously being served all that hot food that's so beautifully presented. Impressive!
Hope you had a fabulous time and got enough to eat!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 25, 2010 22:00:03 GMT
Oh -- that's strange. I came back to look at this thread again and am only now noticing that HW posted right above me.
Ha ha on Father HW! Hope your faux pas didn't nullify the marriage.
Hey, are those giant lazy susans on the tables? How very civilized!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2010 4:54:03 GMT
Lazy susans are very common on all big Asian tables. Gotta be able to get at the food!
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Post by hwinpp on Jul 28, 2010 3:03:55 GMT
First of all, solly, solly, solly. I was up in 'The Rose of the Northwest' until yesterday, on my bi- monthly meeting trip there. Went to a fantastic new restaurant and even though I logged on I was too busy to respond. Yes. The couple was of Chinese ancestry and they married 'modern' style as you noted by the clothes. I've also noticed men are much more casually dressed, no idea why they get away with it. I'll continue here now with the next wedding, on Sunday, where I was the 'father'. I arrived very early, 6am, too early. Bride and groom were getting the wedding pics taken, so I decided to leave and have a coffee at a Vietnamese place around the corner. So off to the coffee shop just down the road and around the corner (in the second pic) and the coffee, one with milk for a friend who'd also come too early and one for me, no milk To be continued tomorrow... including the faux pas. All I'll say now is it concerned a votive snack offering Oh, check out the table top...
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 28, 2010 3:57:25 GMT
Oh gawd -- it's dawn, still dark out! You are a good friend to do this!
That photographer is man-handling your "son" and his bride. They're probably still half-asleep.
Thanks for the answers above. I eagerly await the next wedding saga. Hope you could tear yourself away from that table top to get to the ceremony on time.
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Post by lola on Jul 28, 2010 16:17:49 GMT
So cool, hw. I'd've elbowed K aside to get to some of that food.
Who's the pink-tied guy escorting gorgeous bride in reply 1?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2010 16:39:53 GMT
I am intrigued by the piles of "cheap" gifts behind the photographer. Are they for the guests or for the married couple?
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Post by hwinpp on Jul 29, 2010 2:46:27 GMT
... Who's the pink-tied guy escorting gorgeous bride in reply 1? That's the groom They were divided and presented to the guests after the morning ceremonies. Mostly fruit but also tin cans, flowers and other stuff I didn't much look at. I once went to a wedding that had 4 pig's heads as presents!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 29, 2010 3:17:04 GMT
Didja get a pig head, didja huh?
The groom is being a good sport about the rough handling by the photographer, who looks is distinct danger of getting smacked by the bride.
Every time I look at that pink and gold curtain arrangement behind them, I hiss in air so hard I freeze my teeth.
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Post by hwinpp on Jul 29, 2010 8:29:00 GMT
LOL! That's the style here! I'm uploading more pics, will post once they're up. I'll also find some dresses for the girls here...
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Post by hwinpp on Jul 29, 2010 9:55:43 GMT
Around the coffee shop, sandwiches And noodles Later on being greeted by the bridal couple, next to me in grey, my 'wife', on the left the brides parents, her real mother and her false father (her uncle, younger brother of the mother) A short break before lunch Then more photos And lunch, stir fried 'all kinds', a steamed fish with peanut sauce dressing (new for me) and a tong yam soup (Cambodian version of tom yam)
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Post by lola on Jul 29, 2010 15:34:55 GMT
OK, so the guy with the pink tie at the end of reply 1 is the groom, (rolls eyes) and the Anglo looking fellow having his pictures taken with the bride is a different groom. I get it. Great report. The canned soft drinks alongside the fabulous food would look funny here. Such a wedding would cost me a year's pay.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2010 16:59:35 GMT
But in Cambodia, just $28 to feed everyone. ;D (joking)
The bride's hairstyle à la Mme. Nhu looks like there is still nostalgia for the 1960's. Even though the wedding food looks good, I think I'd rather just hang out at the sandwich shop.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 29, 2010 17:14:50 GMT
So much variety in these new pictures, HW!
I really like the sandwich shop pics. Once again, the 2nd one looks as though it could be where I live, but the 1st one has the nice Asian tell-tale teapots.
Okay now ~~ this bridal couple has been featured in three different sets of clothing. Is that all from the same day/time? When was the actual ceremony. I crave, covet, desire, and want that magnificent gold number the bride is wearing in picture 3, reply #15. I see the groom is also attired in gold. What is the significance of that, please?
Is the bride officially thanking the groom's parents in that photo?
You made a handsome, proud dad and your "son", once again in different clothes in pic 4, looks very happy to be married.
The steamed fish looks fried in batter to me. Whatever, it looks extremely tasty.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2010 17:38:15 GMT
I don't want to pry, but were the groom's real parents unable or unwilling to attend?
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Post by hwinpp on Jul 30, 2010 4:01:36 GMT
Lola, you sleepin' or what? Those are two different weddings The first couple of pics are of a wedding on Saturday, then come the pics of a different wedding where the groom is indeed a pink- faced young Swede The Swede's parents weren't able to come on such short notice so we were asked to stand in. Uploading the pics of the 'official' photographer now, will take some time (over 100mb!) but worth it. Lots more costumes coming up. Bix, I don't know about the gold coloured attire, I suspect it's just a modern day copy of what locals believe to be the old royal Khmer dress. Of course at that time women would be topless, something a good Khmer girl wouldn't even dream of. There used to be a colour code at the old court though. People were required to wear certain colours on certain days. I found this on Wikipedia, obviously written by a Khmer, very detailed: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_clothingNo reference to the colour coding. Closest I get to the colours used is the logo of the Apsara Authority that manages all things Angkor:
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 30, 2010 4:37:41 GMT
*slaps forehead* Oh, she's wearing her sampot chorabap -- of course!
The article is very informative, but more important, it's hugely entertaining! This is my favorite part so far:
The poor had to bandaged their body by joined the ends at middle of chest, drop the remain tail, length to their navel. In contrast, the rich lady tied their self in Chang Pok style more firmly by bride the bit of its upper hem at the left of another side, surely as its was hugging.
although the various ways that toplessness is indicated are most compelling.
None of the bride's female relatives look terribly happy.
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Post by hwinpp on Jul 30, 2010 6:38:38 GMT
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Post by lola on Jul 30, 2010 15:17:43 GMT
Insert embarrassed emoticon here, hw.
I have to wonder whether a bride's family would be concerned about the Marrying an Outsider thing, though of course he seems like a nice kid.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 30, 2010 17:00:35 GMT
All worn on one long day... Good grief! And I thought the mere three outfits I'd discerned earlier were a lot! The groom, too, is arrayed like Solomon in all his glory. Sheesh -- they could have outfitted a house for what the clothing must have cost. Dumb question -- I had the idea that white was the color of mourning in Asia. Maybe that's only for Buddhists? Anyway, the white-for-weddings seems to taken hold with a vengeance in Camobia, for everyone in the wedding party, not just the bride. (ha -- I just noticed in your last sequence -- the "all worn on one long day" one, that you left out the frothy pink number, yet another change of clothing for the bride.)
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2010 21:16:46 GMT
Considering the outfits, I'm surprised that the makeup isn't more garish. I have always loved the Chinese red wedding dresses.
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Post by hwinpp on Jul 31, 2010 2:29:00 GMT
This is a difficult one. Cambodians have always married outsiders. In the beginning they mixed with Indian traders, then they mixed with Chinese traders. Under the KR they had to marry whoever was chosen for them, there were huge forced- marriage ceremonies, some of which survived but many of which didn't and were divorced. The Cambodians are also used to selling or giving away their girls if economic situations force them too, quite frequent in the countryside, to anybody from wherever. In this particular case, the bride's uncle had to stand in as the father (the short, thin, darkish guy) because the father had run away to America and remarried and got a new family there. In spite of this he had the gall to call his daughter here and demand she not marry the Swede. I found her to be quite brave when she basically told him to 'f*ck off'. It is, not only among Buddhists but most everybody else as well. But it's also what they see Western people wear at weddings so it's ok. Anything 'modern' or 'fashion' or 'international' is something that just has to be emulated What got me re the dress changes was that it happened even right in the middle of a ceremony! Not just in the breaks between certain stages. They'd be greeting the guests in the evening and all of a sudden they'd disappear for 5 minutes and return in a different garb... That is one important difference to the Viets or the Thais. The Khmer guys don't put up with that bullshit. No makeup for them, not even a bit of skin whitener. When my brother married he made such a stink about the makeup his wife allowed him to tone it down. No lipstick, no eyeliner, no special hair cut. But they still applied the white stuff to his fave ;D I wind him up every time I'm at his place and see the photos hanging on the wall. All those costumes, the photos, the make up and the hairdo were organized by a photograph shop. That's how they do it here. He'll give them a flat rate for the whole show (everything but the restaurant and food) starting early in the morning and ending with the last shot after the wedding dinner. There's one guy with a big camera, one guy with a big video camera and 2 assistants lugging around tripods and lights etc. There are also outdoor shoots. The bride has told me she paid 700USD. More misc pics coming up. And I still have to explain what made everybody explode with laughter during one of the ceremonies in the morning
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 31, 2010 4:11:55 GMT
Really, really different and interesting!
Wow -- I just realized that the bride somehow changed her hairstyle along with her clothes! Seriously, her hair is fixed at least three different ways.
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Post by bjd on Jul 31, 2010 12:01:32 GMT
I was beginning to wonder whether you were Photoshopping the pictures when the bride and groom kept looking the same but wearing different coloured outfits. (I liked the black sport socks with the gold shoes.)
How long do these wedding last with all these changes of clothing and stops for photographs?
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Post by hwinpp on Aug 2, 2010 8:52:40 GMT
I was beginning to wonder whether you were Photoshopping the pictures when the bride and groom kept looking the same but wearing different coloured outfits. (I liked the black sport socks with the gold shoes.) How long do these wedding last with all these changes of clothing and stops for photographs? Ha, ha, no photoshopping involved. All the pics were taken in a 15 hour period, starting at 6am. Here are the last shots. Bringing all the presents in This is where 'it' happened. The bride and groom offer the 'parents' beetle nut, we take the leaf and then are supposed to symbolically fill it with powdered shell, areca nut and some tobacco. This is folded and supposed to be chewed slowly. I didn't get the last part though and when every leaf had been filled and folded I took a bite out of it and started chewing... only then did I realize I was the only one actually eating it, everybody else was still just touching it with their lips before returning it to the silver platter... So that's why everybody else is laughing... And here's the end of it, the children had a great time, here they are waiting to throw the flower buds
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