In honor of this special holiday, I thought food
would be a fitting topic for today. And besides, who doesn’t want to talk about
food? Food connects us all and transcends language and culture. Food brings
everyone together (as proved by countless family gatherings across the nation
today), and it has the power to help people communicate even when they don’t
share a common language.
When I was in China, I shared many meals with both
my American companions and my new Chinese friends. One evening during dinner, a
very friendly Chinese man sat with us. He couldn’t speak any English (with the
exception of “I’m full”), but I was able to communicate with him because of the
food that we shared. He wanted to teach me how to properly use chopsticks, so
instead of using words, he used his hands and the food on our plates to
communicate with me. And we understood each other—my chopstick hold has
improved and I think of him every time I use chopsticks.
 | ||
| Lots of yummy food we had in China. (Learn Chinese: "I'm full" -- 我饱了 | 。 | Wǒ bǎo le.) |
So the moral of the story is that food is
international, and it brings people together. Well, that’s exactly how we want
our wedding to be—our theme is internationality, and the celebration of our
partnership will bring many people together. We feel that the food at our
wedding should be the same way. And because mine and Keegan’s taste buds reside
on completely different planets, we plan to serve many different kinds of
foods—from all around the world.
We’ve come up with a sort of “Venn diagram” of
food, if you will. On one table, there will be Keegan’s favorite food—Mexican.
We’re not sure on the specifics of what we’ll have, but we’re thinking along
the lines of things like burritos, nachos, tomales, etc. On another table,
we’ll serve my favorite food—Asian. I’m hoping we can have sushi and other side
dishes like spring rolls or edamame. And yet another table will feature Italian
food—this is where mine and Keegan’s taste buds overlap. I thought lasagna
would be a pretty good Italian dish to serve. And since I’m a vegetarian, I’d
love for there to be a veggie or all-cheese lasagna in addition to Keegan’s
meat lovers version. Plus, this would give my vegetarian friends some more options.
So as you can see, we’re planning on serving a wide
variety of food at our wedding. It fits with our theme, our taste buds, and I
think it will give people plenty of options to eat something they’ll enjoy.
I had an idea on how to decorate the tables that
will be holding the food. To go along with our theme and to represent each of
the different foods, I thought about either hanging a flag from that food’s
country on the table or just using tablecloths in the pattern of the flag. And
yes—they actually make those (although I’m having a hard time finding one for
Japan—though it would be easy enough to make). See for yourself:
And if you were wondering, we are planning on
having all of this catered, but we haven’t officially booked our caterer yet.
Our university actually has its own catering branch, and because we’re
students, we get discounts, which is always great! So our university’s catering
service is a major contender—we just haven’t had the time to make it official
yet.
Once we do figure out our catering plans, I’ll be
sure to talk about them in another entry.
Again, I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving and
enjoy this time spent with family and friends.
-Paige
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