My Soup is Too Salty!!

11 Aug 08 - Today marks 3 years 9 months since the day when Her Royal Majesty and I officially, "went steady", as most 13-year-olds would put it. However, instead of celebrating the occasion at some dimly-lit romantic Italian restaurant, we were having a 8-course dinner with both our parents, my brother and my aunt at a dimly-lit Chinese restaurant.

We were sampling the menu that was selected for our wedding banquet, and the whole gang was roped in to provide expert commentary and critics. Images of us shrieking, "My soup is too salty!" amidst flying crockery, à la Zhang Ziyi, came to mind.

At the same time, my aunt was tasked with an additional mission --- to facilitate talks between both families on the betrothal gift, dowry and other details. Our parents were unclear about what each family was supposed to present to the other, when they were supposed to do so, and which other traditions they had to follow. As such, my mum had suggested enlisting my aunt's help, since she has experience handling such matters, including my brother's.

Instead of advocating a strict adherence to tradition, my aunt recommended that we keep things as simple as possible. Our parents must have been relieved to hear that and eventually decided to give each other an ang pow in place of the various traditional items.

Throughout the discussion, we were also busy tasting and commenting on the various dishes. The hotel even provided a little card where you could write your remarks next to a list of all the dishes on the menu. The hotel's restaurant, Summer Palace, was supposed to be rather famous (or at least that's what the restaurant says about itself), but we felt that while some dishes were really good, others were just ho-hum and ordinary.

After dessert, the chef came out to discuss about the food, and we took the chance to air our very honest opinions. Thankfully, he took them calmly, and even wrote down our comments and suggested alternatives. Based on his advice, we made some changes to the menu, and hopefully, our guests would be happy with our choice of dishes.

All in all, this was indeed a very different anniversary, though I'm sure I would not live beyond the next one if I even had any thoughts of repeating this again. Happy 3 years 9 months!

- Melvin