Feeding your six senses

Reunion dinners are a given during Chinese New Year (CNY). But this year, Penangites have a different option: a three-hour immersive evening where a pork-free Chinese banquet comes wrapped in 270-degree immersive projection, live performances and an hour of pre-dinner games and activities.

Feast of Blossom held its premiere on Feb 3 for media and invited guests, and is now open to the public for bookings. It is the first immersive banquet of its kind in Penang, a format that has been drawing crowds in China and Kuala Lumpur for years. The evening centres on an original story, a snake and a horse, denoting the transition from the Year of the Wood Snake to the Year of the Fire Horse, told through animation, live performance and food.

The event is the work of three sisters and a partner, Kelly Giam. While Yeo Lee Ching founded D Project with co-founders Yeo Joe Sin, marketing lead, and Yeo Lee Ting, production director, Kelly leads the flow and operations. Their company D Project has staged immersive art experiences in Penang before, but this is their first sit-down banquet.

“We want to make CNY different for everyone, to create a shared bond and to look back at this moment as an unforgettable memory,“ says Lee Chee, better known as Lee.

The sisters have been in events management for a decade, building their reputation primarily through wedding packages. That instinct for marking moments carries through to Feast of Blossom. From the moment guests walk through the doors, they are greeted at the reception area, where they receive their Blessing Passport, a small booklet that doubles as their guide through the evening, and five “yuan bao” tokens, in the shape of ancient gold nuggets, in a satchel. The “passport” reads: “This passport is your keepsake: a small reminder of joy, flavour, harmony and togetherness to bring home.”

Plenty to do from start

Guests are asked to come an hour before the 7.30pm dinner, and there is plenty to do. Eight pre-dinner stations are spread across the venue. Seven are located along the corridor leading to the dinner hall. The eighth sits apart from the rest, a quieter corner where two hand-painted ceramic jars on a round counter mark the Tipsy Spring Bar. Guests can pour themselves a drink and leave a tip, with all proceeds going to charity.

Using the tokens as currency, guests may participate in activities such as the Kau Cim, a traditional divination method. However, instead of getting advice, guests receive Chinese snacks as indicated by the numbers drawn. At the scent-blending station, guests can create their own blend from dried herbs laid out in wooden trays to take home in a sachet.

There are also QR-code lantern riddles to solve, two interactive chambers where a digital artwork responds to your movements with shifts in light and colour, and many other games and activities that create opportunities for connections and conversations.

For those who want to go further into the experience, the Hanfu add-on lets guests dress in traditional attire before dinner. Xi Le Hanfu Rental Stall sets up on-site, with costumes and professional hair styling available. It is optional, but the experience of being in Hanfu adds another layer to the evening, especially for posing for photos against the many backdrops created for this occasion.

When the doors to the main hall open, guests are greeted with hundreds of red and gold lanterns hanging from the ceiling. The tables that comfortably sit 164 guests are lit by small paper lanterns, making the room warm and low. Wrapping three sides of the hall, floor to ceiling, is the 270-degree projection mapping that the whole evening is built around. Over the next 90 minutes, Feast of Blossom guests are introduced to the story of A Nest, a tale written for this event about She Long the snake and Ma Li the horse, two mismatched companions tasked with restoring the Five Blessings before the New Year.

‘Six-sense’ experience

The dinner runs for 90 minutes. The seven courses, among them a Peranakan Prosperity Red Snapper, Mongolian Golden Prawn and Nourishing Herbal Chicken, arrive in sequence as the story of She Long and Ma Li plays out across the walls, introducing the dishes. Live performances entertain guests during meals, with the projections aligning with each act.

It is almost like theatre, but it does not overwhelm the meal. The performances are short, and the projections are ambient rather than aggressive. You can still talk across the table and hear the clink of porcelain spoons against bowls.

The organisers call it a “six-sense” experience. Sight: the projections, lighting and spatial design. Sound: music, narration and ambient audio. Taste: the seven-course banquet. Smell: the herbal scents introduced during the pre-dinner activities, plus the faint aroma of the dishes as they are placed on the tables. Touch: the cool air-conditioned hall, the weight of the passport in your hand, the silk of the Hanfu robes. The sixth sense, they say, is “heart”, the warmth that comes from being together and sharing blessings.

In a season that often rushes past in a blur of obligations and traffic jams, Feast of Blossom offers something unique where reunion means more than showing up and just eating together. It is where bonds can deepen, conversations become easier, and where sitting still long enough to notice the people around you counts as a blessing in itself.

Feast of Blossom runs for 10 nights only at the Auto City Concept Hall in Juru. Tickets are priced at RM398 per person or RM3,280 per table of 10 people. Children under four are charged RM298 each. Hanfu rental costs an additional RM68 or RM138 with hairstyling. Readers can use the promo code FOBXTHESUN when booking online to enjoy RM30 off individual tickets or RM300 off a table of 10, for all bookings except from Feb 16 to 18.

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 The Sun Malaysia