If you go to any Chinese banquet or dinner served in courses, the first dish to arrive is the four seasons or Chinese cold platter. Well, there are hardly any cold foods in there. However, I do remember those cold dish served in pig’s gelatin when I was much younger. I guess no one likes a blob of cold pig’s gelatin or even the sight of it.
Normally, the dish has four different types of foods, sort of like hors d’oeuvre or appetizers. I believe it is call four season because the foods represent the different seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall in China.
I love this four season platter and normally ask for a platter which probably becomes the main dish for my family because the platter is meant for 10 persons. In it, we get to eat four different dishes in tiny portions.
The first photo is the dish I had at RedBali, featured here in Penang Foods, my new blog. There are scallops wrapped in crab meat, fish deep fried in some crispy crust, salad prawns and stir fried asparagus with squids.
Meanwhile, the second photo is a dish we had at Cyber Jaya, CyberView Lodge.