A Chinese banquet is normally held during special occasions, like weddings, new year, festivals, or sometimes a family gathering or business meeting. A typical Chinese banquet will have 8-10 dishes on its menu.
Some photos of a Chinese banquet, taken during my family dinner at Kok Thai Restaurant in Ipoh, Malaysia last weekend…
The appetiser, or the ‘cold dish’ in Chinese, is often the indicator of how good the restaurant is; the food presentation is vital and sometimes more important than the taste
Other typical food in a Chinese banquet menu… chicken, mushrooms, prawns etc.
looks yummy! well, the food presentation for the appetiser looks good…and is tht mooncake at the site?
Lol, YeinJee, you really really need to think about doing food photography for someone. You always have this delicious looking stuff posted. A little green tint taken out of those photos and you’ll have almost comercial grade food photography for your portfolio.
I’m getting hungry. ;p
I’m surprised to see what looks like fried rice on your list. I thought that was only an American Chinese food dish. (Not the most healthy way to eat rice but very popular in the states)
Yummy, the prawn looks so tempting.
Nux… nope, no mooncake… but lookalike dim sum instead.
cole… thanks for the compliment and advise.
Most of the popular Chinese food in western Chinese restaurants (at least in Europe from my experience) are common in Asia as well… fried rice, sweet and sour pork etc. Just that the western-Chinese restaurants are probably not offering as much variety, and that some of the ingredients might not be easily attained in the west.
ipohchai… and it taste better than how it looks ;)
yeinjee, just curious…what kind of occasion was this?
the appetizer looks pretty interesting.
when my family goes out to eat chinese food, we usually don’t get appetizers. =[
the dish with the broccoli and mushrooms look like a typical dish that my family would get.
but i’m really getting bored of it.
actually, i’m already getting bored with chinese food…not all, but some…
i love rice, but not fried rice.
chinese restaurants usually use bad oil to make it.
plus, i think the ingredients they put in the rice aren’t that great either.
i don’t understand why it’s supposed to be a popular chinese food for westerners.
some chinese dishes are just too overrated in the western world, lol.
i personally love plain white rice served with my all-time-favourite dishes.
as long as the other foods are good, i don’t mind eating more than one bowl of plain white rice!
my record of eating plain rice is actually 4/5 bowls.
but i’m cutting down a lot now…haha.
my all-time-favourite chinese dishes are peking duck and oysters.
lol, i don’t know how to describe the oysters.
it doesn’t really have a special name.
but my family usually get it as steamed garlic oysters or in a pot.
bb if you haven’t tried dim sum then you should. It will restore your love for chinese food. :) At least it did for me. I love sticky rice with chicken (Luo Mi Ji) Chinese Brocoli and of course, all the kinds of dumplings they serve. Yummm.
I tend to stay away from the typical fried sweet and sour stuff, and fried rice etc. Although I do like curry chicken also.
Also, a clue about MSG that some people don’t know. The dishes with brown sauce have little to none added. However, they add alot to the dishes with white sauce because white sauce doesn’t have as much flavor. None is added to the curry dishes of course because it doesn’t need it. And as for the wonton soup. They use the fattiest parts and left over parts of pork and meats to make those wontons. Americans don’t realize just how unhealthy some of that American chinese food is. But the fatties just keep eating it ’cause America LOVES it’s grease, lol. Yuuuck! And the egg rolls? well those are a no-brainer “Hey gimmie lots of duck sauce with that too”
bb… it’s just a family gathering; brother and sisters, mother and nephews/nieces.
You won’t get the appetiser at normal dining… it normally comes in a set, a banquet set (not sure how to say this properly in English). Most smaller scale Chinese restaurants won’t have the banquet set on their menu because of the preparation time.
Most of the Chinese restaurants I saw in Europe are Cantonese style, which is one of the eight (or seven) major Chinese cooking styles. I think Sichuan food is also getting popular in the west, so it’s 2 out of 8… but obviously the westerners are still experiencing only a small fraction of what Chinese cooking is about.
cole… about the MSG, sometimes I wonder if it’s really such a bad thing. If the chefs don’t use MSG they might add in a few more table spoon of salt and sugar to add up the taste anyway, which is still bad for health at the end of the day.
Chinese wontons are meant to be fat, at least half fat lol… to be honest Chinese food in general is not the healthiest food around, but Chinese in traditions are mostly labourers and thus could burn off the calories… it only becomes a problem when modern lifestyle creeps in, when people are eating more than what they need.
cole…as a chinese, of course i’ve had dim sum before! lots too! =D
i like them, but i don’t think it will get me really interested in chinese food again.
i still like chinese food, but at this moment, i’d choose something different if i have a choice.
i still like sweet and sour pork.
i think it’s a good dish to go with plain rice, lol.
but fried rice is just not good for me.
i don’t really know what msg is made of.
but i don’t mind it as long as it doesn’t make a food taste too salty.
i like my food less salty these days.
as for wonton, i don’t eat it at restaurants.
i only eat homemade ones made by my mom.
i don’t know how much fat is really in them, i just recall that they put shrimp in them.
speaking of sauces, my favourite chinese sauces are sesame oil and a sauce that cantonese people call “sweet sauce” or “seafood sauce”.
looks yummy!
I am starving now. I miss Malaysian food. I miss LOBAK.
bc… where are you now?
I am in the US. But I should be coming back in December for yummy yummy food for a few weeks :D
The cold dish looks yummy. Is that salted egg or pumpkin (the one arranged at six o’clock on the round plate)?
I think it’s salted egg with yam instead :)