Two Saturdays ago on May 24th, Howard and I went with his family to Flushing to celebrate Nancy and Johnny's wedding at East Buffet. Howard grew up with Nancy, and his mom brought her family to their old church. I know Nancy and her sisters from our church now too. When we arrived, we were a little unsure of where to go because we didn't immediately recognize her in the photo outside!
I guess they were going by Chinese time because the invitation did say 6pm, but nothing happened for a really long time! In fact, people were still trickling in for the next hour and a half or so. Hubs and I were starving, but thankfully there were some appetizers. Once that table opened up, we hopped out of our seats and scurried over to get a plate of food to curb our appetite for a bit. There was the peking duck in the white bun, fried crispy thingies, seaweed salad, octopus, and an eggroll that was rather greasy but I ate it anyway out of hunger.
I don't eat octopus because I'm not a fan of the chewy texture, but I did get one so that Howard could eat it. He likes octopus and squid when we get sushi.
Finally the bridal party and the couple was introduced even though we had seen everyone beforehand and taken pictures with them. They actually gave out those long cylindrical poppers that they use during Chinese New Year in Chinatown to a few people to set them off when Nancy and Johnny walked in. We were wondering what they were doing initially when they were putting tablecloths over the tables nearest the walkway. I guess it made sense so that any stray confetti wouldn't fall in cups and on the plates. I thought that it might not have been safe, but it seems as if they were prepared for it!
Because there were so many tables to serve, they actually wheeled out all the plates on this cart from the kitchen so that the servers could go back and forth to that. Those were the suckling pigs. You can see the red lights they put in the eye sockets!
I took another picture to show the confetti all over the floor and the guys who had to sweep it up to get the large piles of it out of the way.
In the midst of the first dance, the bridal went up to dance as well. The music changed, and they did a brief fun dance together, which was cute.
Now on to the food! The suckling pig was first. The red lightbulb was a weird addition. Haha, is that a thing? Does it signify anything?
Normally, I don't eat pork like this because of my stomach issues, but I was starving so seeing any type of food was rather exciting!
The server came to dish this out. She grabbed two pieces of the pork, dipped it in the sauce, and put it in the same bread that is used for peking duck.
This was the mini sandwich that ended up being DELICIOUS! I have never had pork like this before. It wasn't extremely fatty like it usually is, and the skin was rather crispy. Of course, if you put anything between bread, I'm a happy camper and will kind of eat all kinds of meat. I probably could have eaten 5 of these and been done for the night.
Warren, another friend from church who was seated at our table, asked the waiter if he could have the pig head! Haha, he was picking up his cousins after the wedding to spend some time with him, so that might have been why he wanted it. Oh, we did have 3 other people at our table including a Caucasian couple, but I guess they had to leave early so they were gone by the time the pig came. The other friend was able to find a seat at a table with other friends, so it was just my in-laws, my sister-in-law and her husband, Howard and me, and Warren! It was entertaining because Howard's dad kept wanting Warren to eat more and then had him take home a lot of the leftovers!
The second course was lobster. Yup, we each got HALF A LOBSTER!
As you can see, it was covered with cheese and had a spinach mixture in it too. I pulled the cheese off of mine before eating the meat from the tail. It was a little overcooked so kind of chewy, but the meat in the claw was amazing. Hubs and I had just seen a picture of a lobster roll either on Facebook or Instagram, so it was yummy getting a little bit of lobster when it's something we never eat. And I have to say, thanks to my hubby for cracking the claw and pulling the meat out for me!
After the pork and lobster, I was full! Haha, but I still ate some more food anyway because next up was the shrimp dish with the broccoli and walnuts. There were SO MANY SHRIMP. My in-laws always know that I'm crazy about shrimp, so I had to eat some despite feeling stuffed already. It's kind of funny how they immediately think of shrimp when we go to eat. Howard and I only bought shrimp once since we got married. I used to also order shrimp every so often when we went out to eat, but since we rarely do that, we never eat it. Never mind the fact that I sometimes get hives if I overdo the shellfish, haha. So of course I had to enjoy some here because this one plate was for 7 of us! Of course, there were leftovers that we had to pack up after each course. After a while, the waiter just gave us a large stack of the styrofoam boxes and bags!
The dishes were brought out faster than ever! You can see that there were lobsters put on the plates of the couple that left, but don't worry. Those were taken home by Warren! Anyway, I didn't eat this dish because I don't like the seafood in it. Normally, I would've eaten that fried ball, but I was already pushing it with all the Chinese food I had already eaten.
I also only had a few spoonfuls of this soup. It was very strong with the MSG, so I knew to stay away from it.
This is a random photo of the decoration. When we first sat down, I asked Howard, "What are those things? Shofars?" And he replied with a more logical answer saying that they were moons, haha. To me, they look like they would be a ram's horn that's blown during certain Jewish holidays!
From what I remember, there was a long pause between the last course and this next one. It was nice to get a break. I ate a little bit of this.
Then I was done. Haha, there was no more room, and I knew I'd pay for what I already devoured. I skipped the chicken dish.
I even skipped the fish dish when normally this is the one I eat the most of it because it's the least greasy.
I did, however, find some room for a few bites of the noodles at the end. These were saltier than normal because a lot of restaurants make these very bland. If I were a judge on Top Chef, I'd say that they were "highly seasoned" and say it as a good thing because I think that most of them like things that are much saltier than what Howard and I normally eat. This along with all the other food we ate that night made us super thirsty for the next few hours!
They typically bring out fried rice along with the noodles as the last course of the meal, but this was a little different. It was sweet-tasting, so I didn't try it. Plus, I'm just not big on rice unless it's smothered in sauce. Well, let me clarify ... a savory sauce, haha.
Howard and I split a piece of cake though I definitely could have eaten an entire one myself if I didn't want to risk feeling too stuffed. I really enjoyed it, haha. I know it sounds weird, but I like Chinese cake as long as it's fluffy and isn't the one with all the weird fruit in it. The reason why is because it's always so light and fluffy and actually not very sweet. I adore "box cake," but this kind is also tasty too!
It was getting really late, and we were getting tired because we're used to having a fairly early bedtime since Howard gets up early for work. I snapped this picture of us as we were waiting to go home.
I konked out during the ride home after putting my Sea Bands on. That's kind of the norm for me when we have to drive to and from Queens. I do that with my family too because I know it's the only way to definitely prevent any carsickness! We got to hubby's parents' house and got in our car to drive home. Thankfully, we are maybe about 15 minutes away from his parents and 15-20 minutes away from my parents (haha, depending on who's driving to my parents' house). As much as I tell people our studio apartment is teeny-tiny (it's exactly what we knew we'd have and is perfect for just the two of us), we really do love where we live right now with one of the reasons being that we are smack in the middle of our parents.
Plus, another good thing about our apartment is that there is this mirror by the elevators where we tend to snap pictures of the two of us in our dressy clothes when we don't get a chance to ask someone to do it at the event we're attending! Haha.
I have to say that going to other people's weddings/banquets/receptions is always a lot more fun than dealing with your own wedding day!
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