Planning a wedding? Congratulations! No doubt you’ve already seen to the finer details like buying your wedding bands from 77 diamonds or your wedding dress from Claire Pettibone (sigh – a girl can dream), but have you considered what you’re going to serve your guests?
If clichés like salmon mousse, prawn cocktail and dry chicken breasts are doing nothing to get your taste buds tingling, why not embrace a culinary tradition from elsewhere in the world?
India
Instead of a wedding cake, Hindu brides and grooms eat yoghurt and honey. This dish, called ‘madhupak’ is symbolic: the yoghurt represents eternal health, while the honey ensures a sweet start to the marriage. Indian savoury options are second to none too. North Indian Hindu weddings traditionally feature a Mughlai spread, which means you can expect a mountain of paneer, tandoori meat, buttery naans and creamy curries. Coastal Indian weddings tend to include fish curries, whereas South Indian weddings are almost completely vegetarian with plenty of delicious dishes on offer.
Regardless, moong daal halva is a favourite wedding tradition in India. This sweet dish consists of lentils, ghee, sugar, milk, cardamoms, pistachios, almonds and raisins. Delicious!
Italy
Italian brides and grooms traditionally give sugared almonds to their guests – the slightly bitter taste of the almond and the sweet coating around it is supposed to represent the bitter sweetness of life and marriage itself. But it wouldn’t be a celebration in Italy without a great spread… so unbuckle your belt and dig in to at least four (or maybe 14) mouth watering courses!
Wedding guests at an Italian wedding feast on antipasto (olives, calamari, prosciutto and breads to name but a few) – like in this yummy platter – as well as pasta (the kind that is far more refined than your average anglicised Spag Bol), rich meat courses and lots of dessert. No-one leaves an Italian wedding feeling hungry!
China
Traditional Chinese weddings feature a number of courses too. And, the choice of food served is as much of a symbolic consideration as one of taste! For this reason, guests at a traditional Chinese wedding dine on dishes symbolising happiness, longevity and fertility.
As geese mate for life and migrate together, wild geese is often served as a symbol of fidelity and happy union. Fish dishes are popular too, as the word for fish, ‘yu’, sounds similar to the word for abundance or plentiful.
Shark fin soup was often served as a display of wealth, but due to environmentally-motivated changes in attitude, it’s becoming less common. Guests are also likely to devour dishes in red sauces, as red is the colour for happiness, and long noodles served at the end of meal symbolise longevity and everlasting love.
Fancy something else?
Why not borrow elements of each of these dishes, or take inspiration from other countries? For example, Thai weddings feature a sweet plaited bread called ‘khanom kawaew’ and ‘mat khanoon’, where peeled split mung beans are piled in such a way to suggest that the bride and groom will always be supported by their family. Or, just order pizza – it’s totally up to you!