In a Cantonese wedding banquet, nearly every course carries a wish for the couple. The red-skinned suckling pig that opens the meal signals good fortune. Lobster and chicken stand for the dragon and phoenix, the classic image of a balanced marriage. Abalone promises abundance, a whole steamed fish means plenty from beginning to end, fried rice closes the savoury courses with fullness, and a sweet dessert wishes the couple a sweet life together. Reading the menu is part of the pleasure: the dishes are delicious, and they are also a set of blessings served in order.
Chinese celebration food leans heavily on wordplay. Many ingredients sound like auspicious words in Cantonese or Mandarin, and banquet menus make the most of it. Wedding menus go a step further, giving each course a four-character phrase of good wishes before the dish itself. The meanings below are the ones most commonly given in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Vancouver; families sometimes read them a little differently, and that is part of the tradition.
We use the courses from our own wedding menus as examples. All four menus have ten courses, and ten itself is often taken to suggest something full and complete.
The opening: suckling pig
A whole roast suckling pig, its skin lacquered red and crackling, is the grandest way to open a Cantonese banquet. Red is the colour of joy, and the glossy skin reads as prosperity at first sight. In older Cantonese custom, a roast pig also accompanied the bride on her first visit home after the wedding, so the dish has long been bound up with marriage.
Our Auspicious Blessings (龍鳳呈祥) menu opens with a whole suckling pig under the name 陽運當頭, roughly "good fortune shining overhead". A Heavenly Match (佳偶天成) and Everlasting Union (永結同心) begin with suckling pig platters, while Hearts United (心心相印) opens with the Neptune Palace appetizer platter.
Dragon and phoenix: lobster and chicken
The dragon (龍) traditionally stands for the groom and the phoenix (鳳) for the bride. Together they form one of the most familiar wedding images in Chinese culture, and they appear on everything from invitations to the bride's embroidered kwa. At the table the dragon is lobster, which in Chinese is literally "dragon prawn" (龍蝦), and the phoenix is chicken, often called "phoenix" on banquet menus.
Every one of our wedding menus serves two lobsters braised in superior broth. The "two dragons" (雙龍) also suggest a pair. In Hearts United and Everlasting Union, a house special roast chicken follows the lobster, completing the dragon-and-phoenix pairing; Hearts United also includes sautéed scallops with sliced chicken, named 鳳片 "phoenix slices". In A Heavenly Match and Auspicious Blessings, three crispy braised squabs take the bird's role. In the Auspicious Blessings menu the lobster course is called 龍精虎猛, "the vigour of dragon and tiger", and the squab 飛鴿傳情, "doves carrying love letters".
Abalone and the soup: abundance and soaring hopes
Abalone (鮑魚) is the luxury centrepiece of many banquets. Its name is often linked to phrases of assured abundance, and its slow braising makes it a sign of care and generosity from the hosts. Each of our menus includes ten whole braised Australian abalone, one for every guest; in Auspicious Blessings they are Australian greenlip abalone, named 鮑羅萬有, a pun on the idiom 包羅萬有, "embracing everything".
The soup arrives before the abalone. Thick soups with crab meat, fish maw or swallow's nest are banquet standards today, and many Vancouver banquets serve them in place of the shark fin soup of older generations. In Auspicious Blessings the crab meat and swallow's nest soup is called 展翅高飛, "spread your wings and soar".
Other dishes carry their own puns. Geoduck is 象拔蚌 in Cantonese, literally "elephant trunk clam", so Auspicious Blessings names its geoduck with asparagus 萬象更新, "all things renewed", a phrase that shares the character 象. Crispy prawn croquettes become 星空奇遇, "a chance meeting under the stars", a nod to the couple's first encounter.
The whole fish: plenty from beginning to end
A whole steamed fish usually arrives near the end. The word for fish, 魚 (yú), sounds like 餘, meaning surplus, which gives the well-known blessing 年年有餘, "abundance year after year". Serving the fish whole, head and tail intact, adds the wish that the marriage be complete from start to finish (有頭有尾).
Auspicious Blessings names its steamed live fish 魚躍龍門, "the carp leaps the dragon gate", from the old story of a carp that leaps a waterfall and becomes a dragon. It is a wish for success and rising fortunes.
Fried rice and dessert: fullness and sweetness
Fried rice or noodles close the savoury courses. Rice stands for a full and secure household, and long noodles, when served, for a long life together. Our menus end with an egg white fried rice with dried scallops (Hearts United), a yin-yang fried rice (Everlasting Union, 富貴鴛鴦, after the mandarin ducks that symbolise a devoted pair) or a barbecued wagyu beef fried rice. In Auspicious Blessings that last rice dish is named 嫦娥奔月, after the legend of Chang'e flying to the moon, a romantic image as the evening winds down.
The final course is sweet, and its meaning is the simplest: 甜甜蜜蜜, "sweet as honey", a wish for a sweet marriage. Cantonese wedding desserts are often red bean soup or a sweet soup with lotus seeds, whose name 蓮子 sounds like a wish for children; our menus close with the chef's signature dessert.
Wedding menus at Neptune Palace
Our four wedding banquet menus, Hearts United, Everlasting Union, A Heavenly Match and Auspicious Blessings, each serve a table of ten and are available at both our Vancouver (Marine Gateway) and Burnaby (Brentwood) locations. To talk through the courses, pricing and available dates, call Vancouver at (604) 423-3386 or Burnaby at (604) 566-0897.
Questions, answered
Why is suckling pig served at Chinese weddings?
Roast suckling pig is a classic opening for Cantonese banquets because its crackling red skin evokes luck and celebration. In older Cantonese custom a roast pig was also part of the bride's homecoming visit to her family, which tied it closely to weddings.
What does dragon and phoenix mean at a wedding banquet?
The dragon traditionally stands for the groom and the phoenix for the bride, together a picture of a harmonious match. On the table the dragon is usually lobster, called 龍蝦 'dragon prawn' in Chinese, and the phoenix is chicken or another bird.
Why is a whole fish served near the end of the banquet?
The word for fish, 魚 (yú), sounds like 餘, meaning surplus, so fish wishes the couple abundance year after year. Serving it whole, head and tail intact, adds the sense of a marriage that is complete from beginning to end.
What do the poetic dish names on a wedding menu mean?
Banquet menus often give each course a four-character phrase of good wishes, followed by the actual dish. The phrase usually plays on the ingredient's sound or shape, such as 魚躍龍門 'the carp leaps the dragon gate' for a steamed fish.