AN OAKLAND WEDDING BANQUET

As many of you know, Huong and Kjell got married in the Bay Area a few weeks ago. Their ceremony was on Sunday, but they had the traditional Chinese banquet on Saturday evening at the Restaurant Peony in Oakland Chinatown. We arrived a bit late (having been told that everyone shows up late to these things), so food started being served shortly after our arrival.

We got seated at a table with all of our friends, and the table next to us was filled with even more friends (it's nice going to a wedding when you know so many people). And even though some of the food was unfamiliar to Tom and other guests at our table (and I just didn't eat a lot of what was served), we still enjoyed the plentiful food.

We started off with the typical plate of cold cuts, filled with slices of pork, pickled veggies and jellyfish. I enjoyed the jellyfish, though would have preferred it with more pickled veggies.

The next item that followed were these tasty fried crab balls. (There was also a plate of roast suckling pig, which I didn't photograph since I didn't eat any)

Next up, a dish or broccoli, shrimp and scallops- all very fresh and tasty.

Next, my favorite dish of the night, the Peking duck with those fried shrimp chips that my sisters and I used to fight over when we were kids.

Here's a photo of the duck after we had consumed the skin with the little pancakes (unfortunately, the didn't give us nearly enough scallions or plum sauce)

A plate of ginger scallion lobster was served.

Followed by a plate of pan fried noodles:

And the final dish, the steamed fish with soysauce, ginger and scallions.

Overall, the food was decent enough, but it was actually really oily and greasy, thus it was a heavy meal. Since it was so oily, I actually didn't end up stuffing myself and walked away from the meal a little hungry (amazingly enough). I'm not a huge fan of the banquet food at Peony, but I've heard from many sources that they have a great dim sum, so I'm hoping to try that out in the future.

Oh and to finish the meal, we had a bowl of red bean soup (the Chinese aren't really known for their desserts), but at least this was a nice, light way to finish the meal.