This is the traditional 4x4 banquet.
Apparently, the 4 x 4 banquet comprises Four bowls of seafood delicacies, Four main (meat) dishes, Four bowls of broth/chowder and Four plates of minor dishes.
A more luxurious presentation of this banquet will commence with Sixteen starters/Hors d'oeuvres comprising Four presentations of dimsum/finger food, Four fresh fruits, Four dried fruits, and four snacks.
Sixteen starters/Hors d'oeuvres
a) Kelp, agar-agar (I would make this savoury, flavoured with beef broth and set, then cut to strips), fern frond/bracken (blanched and served with oyster sauce), sea-rice, which I interpret as dried prawns (soaked in hot water until softened, then deep fried to puff them up – delicious as snack to company liquor – I choose this over pretzels)
b) Fresh bananas, kumquats, pineapples, apples
c) Dried plums, “mendong” – I only know a medicinal herb by this name, so I am lost on this one, dried marrows, honey jujube
d) Sliced beef (I would present dried beef, sliced), sliced pork, pork ribs simmered in rock sugar, chicken tongue simmered in soya sauce.
Four Seafood delicacies:-
a) Sea cucumber stewed with boneless beef shin
b) Braised pork (I would add abalone since this is supposed to be seafood delicacies)
c) Meat floss – I would flavour with fish sauce
d) Eight treasure congee – this is a rice broth with eight types of nuts etc., inter alia lotus seeds, red jujube. I would add in shredded dried scallops (soaked and then deep fried) for extra flavour and texture.
Four Main (Meat) dishes
a) Cuttlefish (calamari) in sweetened balsamic vinegar
b) Twice cooked pork fried with wood fungus
c) More popularly known as
木须肉 these days, this is a dish with fried pork slices, fried eggs, cloud (black) fungus, and dried tiger lily buds
金针花d) Fried vegetables – in this case, with chicken meat, since there are two pork and one beef dishes already. Mutton might is also possible, but I would prefer something more on the plain side to refresh the palate.
Four broth/chowder (
烩 as a style of cooking is meats etc. served in – not with – a lot of thick sauce/soup – sort of like a chowder)
a) Thickened soup with fresh fish, pork and chicken
b) Lightly thickened soup with Fish maw and meat balls made of minced pork and prawn
c) Lotus seed in a light savoury broth
d) (Glutinous) Wine lees and poached egg in a light syrup (I have had this before - I love it!)
Four plates of minor dishes
a) Fried beef slices
b) Fried mutton with vegetables
c) Slice chicken breast fried with chillis
d) Meat balls in sweet balsamic vinegar
Desserts – I am too lazy to translate these – not that there are any English equivalent anyway.
I don't think I will be doing anymore translating of the dishes. It is very hard work.