Full banquet lunch with family – Day 169 – Feb 18, 2026

It’s Wednesday and family gathering at lunch today! We have a quiet morning at home, and then head out for the big feast at around 11am. We are meeting two aunts and one uncle at the subway station by YOHO mall in the New Territories, and then the rest of the family will be waiting at the restaurant. It’s one short and one long ride on the subways, and then we’re there.

The family leads us through the mall to a very busy restaurant, with large line ups outside the door. It’s the same as when we meet family in Toronto/Markham, it feels great to walk towards a hectic busy restaurant and just sail past the chaos at the hostess desk (it might not be chaos to them, just a regular holiday Wednesday to them) and take our waiting seats with the family. (Does this mean we’re always late? No, there are others arriving after us, so it can’t be that…)

To start, on New Year’s, it’s all about red envelopes. Kids get the most, as all family members have to give kids a red envelope, traditionally with money. Each adult gives each kid one envelope, so each of our girls got two envelopes from each married couple. Here’s the twist – once you get married, the tradition stops. Joe and I shouldn’t have gotten a single envelope, but still we ended up with many red envelopes. We followed the rules we had learned, and only brought red envelopes for Joe’s cousins who are 1 – younger than him and 2 – unmarried. At this event though, ALL “kids” got envelopes. It was a very happy exchange of envelopes to start our lunch!

Have you ever had a proper, banquet-style Chinese dinner? If not, I highly recommend you try it out! It’s usually 10 dishes, with a noodle dish, a rice dish, and a dessert to end the feast. Here’s what we had today:

Of course we are all rolling away from the table after such a feast, and you may think “omg I couldn’t eat that much”, but that’s kind of the strategy. Eat as little as possible while tasting each dish, only take an extra mouthful of your absolute favourites. But the dishes do disappear as they empty, and they come out one by one at a fairly doable pace, I think at most we had three dishes on our table at once. And of course, any leftovers are packaged and brought home, so nothing goes to waste!

After lunch, the aunt we haven’t seen until today invites everyone over to their apartment, so we all head to the subway for a couple of stops, then walk en masse over to their place. We lose a couple of cousins along the way, they’re going different places.

It’s my third visit to this place, and it’s been renovated beautifully since the first time. In Hong Kong I have learned that a welcoming home is not one with 14 chairs or couches or table space, it’s where the stools and doorways are all in use, and as long as the tea is flowing, it’s a loving space. During our first visit here, New Year’s 13 years ago, Joe’s grandma hosted a large traditional dinner in her two bedroom apartment. We were 24 people for dinner that day, and now the space feels just big enough for the four of us. But then again, daily life and a special event dinner are two different things, and uses the space very differently as well.

After tea and candy and cookies and more tea, we thank them for today and aim for home. Last night was a super late one, and we need to slow down a bit. The English speaking uncle, his daughter Joey and her husband Kris all walk us over to the bus depot, where there’s a practically door to door connection straight back to grandma’s place.

I love long bus rides like this one, and fall asleep instantly. When I wake up, I nudge Joe and ask – isn’t this our stop?? We rush downstairs, and were too slow (even with many others going down the stairs ahead of us), so the bus closes its doors and continues to the next stop, which is just on the other end of the same subway station. It works out better for us anyways, makes the walk up to the minibus much shorter.

We get home, Joe makes a simple dinner of the remainder of the BBQ pork from the fridge, and we have a relaxing night at home. The famous fireworks display in Hong Kong harbour starts at 9pm, and we’re watching it while wearing PJs, and one foot essentially under the covers. We are all in bed pretty soon after 10pm, and hope for a good night’s rest.