Tea Ceremony

Growing up, I had been to very few weddings and every wedding I had attended had been for a Chinese couple.  Specifically, I remember my older cousin Minh's wedding:  the frenzy of the morning preparing for the day's activities, the long waiting period as he and his bride went to the courthouse to sign papers, their return and the start of the tea ceremony where they honored their elders, hours upon hours (or so it seemed then) of picture taking, and the best part of all -- the giant multi-course banquet that stretched into the wee hours of the night.

Having similar memories for my own wedding meant a lot to me, and so even though having a tea ceremony before a wedding might be seen as "old fashioned" nowadays in China, I felt that it would be a wonderful tradition to hold onto for me and Mike as well as our family. 

Traditionally, the tea ceremony is done the morning of the wedding, but to fit everyone's schedule, we held it about a week before the actual wedding at our town home.  It was a crazy and intense time since we had literally just moved into our new place in Eden Prairie the previous day.  We hid away the boxes as best we could and quickly set up our kitchen and dining/living room area to host 20+ family members.

My parents and siblings had gone to China in July and were able to get me a qipao, the traditional dress worn at Chinese weddings.  The dress had to be custom-made as most women in China are shorter and smaller than I.  Kim picked out the fabric's pattern. 

Dinner was served first.  Lasagna might not be very Chinese, but it is delicious and feeds a lot of people!

After everyone was fed, we set up for the tea ceremony.  My Aunt Fong was in charge of directing the ceremony while my other aunts were busy in the kitchen making tea and having enough dishes for everyone.

Lots of family pictures are also taken at the tea ceremony.

The couple getting married first serve tea to their parents to honor them.

Mike became very good at asking people to take tea in Cantonese.

After the parents are served, the couple serves tea to the other elders in the family as a way of introducing themselves to the family.

It was a wonderful way to spend an evening with family before the bustle of the wedding.

Dim Sum Fun

One of my favorite memories growing up was going out for dim sum with my family on Saturday or Sunday mornings.  The Chinese restaurant was always bustling with hungry customers and my siblings, cousins, and I would get to pick our favorite foods off the carts that clattered by.  Last Sunday, my parents invited us out to dim sum (or in Cantonese, "yum cha", a phrase Mike knows quite well) to kick start my and my sister's spring break.  

Sometimes we have a tendency to be late...

But not too late...!

One of the best places in the Twin Cities for dim sum is Mandarin Kitchen off of Lyndale in Bloomington.

As the Cantonese name indicates ("yum cha" means "drink tea"), hot tea is the first thing that arrives at the table. 

It doesn't take long, however, for the people maneuvering the carts or carrying dishes to stop by and present you with their assortments of small plates. 

A lot of dim sum fare is steamed, sometimes in bamboo steamers and sometimes in metal ones like those below.

Because dim sum was traditionally considered a snack to have with one's morning tea, the serving sizes are small.  Now it just means there is more opportunity to try a variety of things.

The first thing we dug into were two fried cakes made of root vegetables.  Lo Bak Goh is made out of daikon, a kind of Japanese radish and is the paler cake in the picture below.  We also had Wu Tal Goh, which is made out of taro root and slightly darker (also already eaten by the time the picture was taken).  Overall, we kids (Kim, Mike, and I) preferred the slightly sweeter Lo Bak Goh.  They both are good when eaten with soy sauce and chili oil. 

My parents said that the curried squid was especially good this particular day.  My siblings and I used to fight over who got to have more squid in our noodle soups.

Siu Mai is a steamed dumpling filled with ground pork (sometimes mixed with shrimp) and topped with either crab or fish roe.  This particular dim sum dish is now often found in some frozen food aisles of grocery stores.

Har Gow is one of my all-time favorite dishes.  It is a shrimp dumpling in a translucent wrapper made with wheat starch in the dough.  Seriously amazing.

Mike's artistic plate of Siu Mai and Har Gow.

My sister and I really enjoy jelly fish salad.  Yes, what looks like noodles below is really pickled jelly fish cut into thin strips.  Yum.

A close up of the jelly fish.

Mike was brave enough to take a bite.  It has a surprisingly crisp, yet chewy texture.

The chicken feet was also really good, albeit not attractive looking in the picture.  There are lots of little bones you have work around, but the skin fell right off and was flavored just right.

Another one of my personal favorites is Har Cheung.  It's a Fun Cheung (steamed rice flour roll) filled with shrimp and eaten with a sweetened soy sauce.  Delicate and delicious.

Another dumpling, this time with a scallop on top.

In addition to savory dishes, dim sum also includes a number of sweet pastries and dessert type foods.  Our family favorite is the Sesame Seed Ball which is made from a sticky rice flour that is filled with either a sweet red bean or yellow bean paste, rolled in sesame seeds and fried.  Here, the waitress is using the favored cutting utensil of the Chinese to split our Sesame Seed Balls:  scissors.

They only serve Sesame Seed Balls with yellow beans at Mandarin Kitchen.  That's okay with us -- we prefer the yellow bean paste.

Our table is clearing out...

My parents, full of dim sum.

So are we.

Our tab was also very full.

But well worth it.  I'm already excited for the next time we have dim sum again!

Kobe Beef and Sushi

A few years back a surprisingly decent sushi restaurant opened up in Plymouth.  My family has gone there for dinner on occasion and my sister and I may have satiated some of our spontaneous sushi cravings at the same establishment.  While living with my parents during the summer, Mike and I visited Kobe a few times and always left happy. 

We returned last week for a relaxing dinner after a hectic couple of weeks of school concerts and tight work schedules.  Hot tea and miso soup were incredibly satisfying, especially after coming in from the cold.  Wanting to try something unique, we settled on an appetizer called "Kobe Beef Hot Rock with Citrus Ponzu".  We didn't know what to expect and were even more curious when our waiter told us it would be a slight wait for the rock to get hot. 

He returned later with a plate holding a medium sized stone on a bed of salt and a platter of beef and butter.  He demonstrated how to cook our appetizer on the hot stone -- heated up so that it would cook the thin slices of meat in sizzling butter.

The meat was absolutely delicious and fun to cook.  The cooking technique reminded us of our raclette grill -- Japanese style!  We decided we liked it better without the ponzu.  Why cover up the taste and quality of Kobe beef?

Afterward, we ordered two of their special rolls for our meal. 

One had spicy tuna (a favorite of mine)... 

...and the other had shrimp tempura.  Both were very good.  

We went back to Eden Prairie very pleased.  While Kobe's more simple and classic sushi may not be stellar, their specialty rolls are quite delicious -- as is their Kobe beef appetizer.  Mike and I have also enjoyed their late night happy hour, though we have been warned not to go to their lunch buffet.  So it is.  The last time we had the combination of Kobe beef and sushi for dinner, we were in Cologne at a high end (and price) restaurant.  This was just as delicious and closer to home. 

Bridal Shower Shenanigans

Way back in September of 2010, Yooney was a fabulous bridesmaid and took on the task of planning and hosting a bridal shower for me.  Lots of work and stress were involved, but she was awesome and pulled it off.  It was a great way to kick off all the events leading up to the wedding day.

After eating, more eating, and socializing, we started on some of the fun activities that Yooney had planned for the afternoon.  One of these activities was a trivia game where I had to guess the answers that Mike would give for questions about us.  She went as far as to video tape the interview with Mike, which made it even more fun.  Overall, I think I did rather well. 

After unwrapping some fantastic gifts, more eating, and more socializing, we moved on to the next task.  The other crazy game she had slotted for the party was a toilet paper wedding dress contest.  The guests broke into four different teams and had a certain amount of time to create a gown fit for getting hitched.

Team One was Breanna and Verna (and Zion) with Kim as the model.

Team Two was Jamie and Alyssa with Christy volunteering her physique.

Betsy, Sarah, and Dixie made up Team Three with Kate as the model bride.

My mother and aunts assembled as Team Four.  It was very interesting to see what four seamstresses would do with toilet paper.

Everyone did a great job in improvising and evolving their designs.

My Aunt Fong found herself a toilet paper wedding ring.

Kim needed an accessory on her head to complete the chic and modern design of her dress.

Team Two found some contraband tissue paper to veil Christy.

She does look darling, however, with her toilet paper bouquet.  The poofy shoulders is also impressive.

Kim's looking pretty fabulous.

And they're done!

Team Two

Team Four

Team Three

Team One

And the four lovely brides all together.

Afterward, we had fun trying to get tape out of everything -- including hair.

We certainly created quite the mess.

Soon afterward, Mike made his cameo appearance.

More socializing and eating commenced.

It was a very fun and enjoyable day.