China 2012: Tanner and Nancy's Wedding Festivities

For my Chuseok holiday, I went to the Jiangxi Province of southeastern China, not, as the post title might suggest, for Tanner and Nancy's Chinese wedding, but for the post-wedding festivities, as they were previously wed. Basically, I came along for the food.



I arrived at Nanchang late on Saturday, and we (including Tanner's mom Ginny) made our way to the city's Western bar, called the Phoenix, which was one of T&N's haunts when he taught here a few years ago. A comfy place with a nice porch--the weather was spectacular the whole time. Lunch the next day was at a place selected by Nancy's friend Chris, and it was awesome. The pics below are of a really tasty fish dish (and I say that not being a fan of stewed fish) paired with bok choy, underneath which is pig's intestine as a stir fry. The other dishes were nearly as awesome but didn't photograph well.




We went for a walk in the local park, and i caught a nice snap of the young couple:



We drove two hours to Fenyi, a new hotel, and a smallish banquet with members of Nancy's family--aunts, uncles, Gran, etc). I have no pictures, sadly, because the food was incredible, and well-presented. After dinner, we went for a walk around the lake to look at the full moon (it's the Moon Festival in China, Chuseok in Korea) and eat moon cakes. The next day was a large luncheon banquet attended by about 200 people. Pictures below: Nancy's parents, the banquet hall, second floor.




Here's some food, all delicious: lamb, pork balls, pork and rice with corn, turtle soup, spicy pork, rice flour buns, more pork.









World-renown hundred-year eggs:


Our final banquet was in the next town over, whose name I don't remember, but Tanner described it as Minneapolis to Fenyi's St. Paul. Instead of one big room, the dinner took place in a number of smaller rooms, with one table in each. The couple spent time, as traditional, going from room to room toasting with water-weakened baijo. More great food, of course, but the star was the lamb. The last picture was taken by Tanner, and shows all the guests at the head table, with the remains of the meal--look at all that food!