To make the wedding sing and dance like music, you can not do without a magnificent feast. The menu of this meal is always full of delicacies and the most delicious dishes. And if you want to leave a lasting impression on your dear guests, you can turn to the overseas traditions.
The ancient custom of the deep
A rich wedding feast is the key to a happy family life, and therefore it is not customary to skimp on treats. The British, for example, begin to please guests right from the doorstep, handing them bags of sweets and thank-you cards. The main dish of the feast is baked lamb, which reigns over countless meat and fish snacks. The dessert part opens with a traditional pudding with raisins and spices. Its appearance looks especially impressive, because before serving the pudding is poured with rum and set on fire.
Residents of Norway from time immemorial prepare for a wedding “bride’s porridge” from wheat and thick cream. Traditionally, it is served after the bride is dressed in a “married woman’s costume”. Often, in the midst of the celebration, a pot of porridge is stolen by one of the nimble guests, demanding a generous ransom for it. It is necessary to return the porridge at all costs, otherwise the young will not see a happy life.
The Hungarian wedding is famous for its symbolic traditions. The newlyweds must eat a huge cabbage roll. According to legend, this dish symbolizes the inviolability of family ties and guarantees an army of healthy toddlers in the future. The place of honor on the table is occupied by a roasted rooster – an ancient symbol of fertility and prosperity. And for dessert, guests will be treated to a large homemade roll with apples and nuts.
A traditional Greek wedding is an exquisite feast with a string of tempting dishes, the names of which sound like chanting ancient verses. Meat stuffed cabbage rolls with rice in grape leaves, tender souvlaki skewers in fragrant lavash, baked eggplant with juicy minced meat will make any gourmet happy. All this abundance is accompanied by noisy fun and traditional dances.
Arabic fairy tales in reality
Arabs like no one know a lot about wedding celebrations on a grand scale. To make sure of this, it is enough to visit at least once a chic Arab wedding, as if transferred from the pages of fairy tales to reality. On the first day, guests are warmed up with a “modest” party for a thousand people with fresh juices and refined oriental sweets. On the second day, the real celebrations begin with kilometers of tables bursting with food. The main dish for thousands of years remains juicy lamb with white sauce with traditional pilaf mac-lube. More than generous leftovers from the table at the end of the festival are distributed to friends and neighbors. A week later, the newlyweds go to a return feast to the guests, equally lavish and abundant. And a real Arab wedding lasts at least a month.
Bedouins are not alien to anything human, and therefore they are also happy to go for a walk at a wedding. On this occasion, they prepare a traditional fried camel, which can compete in originality with no other culinary creation. To begin with, several large fish are stuffed with eggs, fish are stuffed with chickens, and birds, in turn, are stuffed with fried lamb, which somehow fits in the belly of a camel. Then this “matryoshka” is buried in the sand and a fire is built over it. After the ritual is completed, the camel is dug out into the light of day and divided among the guests, they begin to eat.
Much more modest and ordinary looks like a Syrian wedding, where the ball is ruled by mutton on a spit. As an appetizer, a traditional dish is served – fried meat and fish balls with the addition of spicy herbs. Maza salad of tomatoes, poultry, olives, nuts and watermelon seeds is also a must on the table. As in other Arab countries in Syria, weddings are held without laughing drinks-it is customary to treat yourself to fruit juices and sweet carbonated waters.
Asia’s Humble Charm
An Indian wedding can be easily recognized by the abundance of rice and fragrant spices on the table. Whatever dishes are not present in the festive menu, bowls of boiled rice in reserve will always be there. And the crown dish was and remains pilaf, which is prepared according to its own signature recipe in each individual Indian village. It is served in bulk on a large copper tray, along the edges of which small serving cups are placed for other dishes. The guest of honor of the feast is roast lamb with spinach. Pork with rice and pineapples is no less a joy for the feasters.
When preparing for a wedding celebration, Koreans are guided by the rule “if the tablecloth is not visible behind the plates, then the table is set perfectly”. Contrary to frightening stereotypes, there are no dogs here in any form. The main dish is a boiled rooster, which is usually wrapped with colorful threads and put red pepper in the beak, a symbol of undying love. The obligatory wedding menu includes dozens of varieties of salads and national pickles. Colorful desserts are presented with golden chak-chak, Korean kadyuri firewood, pegodya pies and many others.
The national Balinese wedding is not only a romantic ceremony on the sandy beach of the ocean in the sunset rays of the sun. It is also a delicious meal with a local flavor. The highlight of the program may well be a whole smoked pig, which is served on a platter with fresh flowers and lit candles. The festive table is not complete without baked fish on banana leaves, shrimp in a crispy batter or fried tofu with a spicy sauce. Any bride will be happy to know that according to the established tradition, all these dishes are prepared by the groom himself on the night before the wedding.
Whatever menu you choose for your own wedding, the main thing is not only to bring it to life exactly, but also to make sure that all the guests get to the dessert in good health and can appreciate it.