The day of our catered party at noon, the caterers arrived at around 9:30 AM with all the pressurized propane stoves (for high temp cooking), woks, tables and chairs, food, serving plates and eating wares. Chinese wine and liquor were already bought yesterday. The food will be cooked and serve on premise. We had invited 60 people for a 22 courses banquet. I found out later that Xingning’s custom was to have banquet at noon instead of in the evening. I supposed it made sense to have such heavy meal during the day so one can have the rest of the day to digest the food. My cousin also invited the village chief and the general secretary of Xingning. He didn’t expect them to show up but at 11 AM, the General Secretary showed up on his motor scooter with a 20 foot long fire crackers. I still didn’t understand what it was with the Chinese about fireworks. My cousin felt so honor and instantly gained tremendous face among the whole village.
People started to arrive in small groups and tea were served in those ever presence little plastic ketchup cups. The little earthen tea pot was working overtime. Before we know it, people started to drink wine and smoke cigarettes. I greeted everyone with my now newly developed Cantonese/Hakka/Mandarine/English dialect and everyone seemed to understand exactly what I said. Without second guessing myself, I had never felt so proud of my language skill.
Tao Tim's younger brother Tao Sun (陳道新), a retired doctor, arrived around 11:30 with his son's chauffeur from Guangzhou (廣州), (a 4 hours ride), and joining us for the feast. Tao Sun's son was some sort of big shot Chinese official and was well off enough to have his owe driver. Tao Tim and Tao Sun were my closest kin in China. Their father and mine shared the same father but a different mother.
Food started to flow out from the outdoor kitchen temporarily set up at the back of the house which was staffed by a chef and two women assistants/waitresses. The 22 courses arrived continuously at a regular pace and people seemed to able to keep up with the eating as there were always room at the table for the next dish.
After the 4th course, Tao Tim advised me to go around to all the tables to give each one a proper toast. We started with the one with the VIP's from the city and village. At that precise moment that long string of fire crackers were lit and it was so loud that nobody really can hear what I was trying to say in my mixed dialect. It was just as well that they were spared the agony.
There were so much toasting and counter toasting as everyone was trying not to be out done by the next person and no one was eating and the onslaught of food started to pile up on the table. People were looking for more wine and the two kitchen helpers turned waitresses were flustered with the mob scene.
At two o'clock, the last course were served and everyone seemed to be pretty sloshed. The big shot VIP suddenly stood up to leave and all his entourage followed. Things started to wound down from the drinking and the two overworked waitresses started to clear the tables with great efficiency. Many of the men gather around and the little tea pot was once again sprung into action and rounds of tea was served. The all hung around until 4 PM and at 6 PM sharp dinner was served with many of the leftover dishes from the same afternoon.
After dinner, my cousin presented me a duplicate copy of our ancestral archive which he was one of the editors.They put a new edition every 5 years and it came in 3 volumes. I gave him an update from my side of the family in the U.S. with names of all the nephews and nieces. I also told him that my daughter, Jessica was protesting in why all the daughters names were not recorded in the archive. Even though it was a common practice for generations in many Chinese family archives, Tao Sun also disagreed with the inequality. Tao Tim finally agreed that in the next edition, he will put down all the daughters names in as well. So I crossed off another item on my list for this trip.
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