People's ideas began to advocate the word "eight". In order to celebrate good luck, the square table was changed to the square table, where eight guests were seated and eight dishes (eight cold dishes and eight big bowls of dishes) were eaten. This form of four bowls of meat dishes and four bowls of vegetarian dishes was stereotyped as "eight bowls" in the Tang Dynasty and was widely popular. In my hometown of Hebei, there is a saying of "eight bowls and four dishes", and basically you can see red and white wedding banquets. Although there are some changes in these standards now, in the eyes of the elderly, eight bowls are almost the same ingredients every time, but now the main ingredients are more prominent and precious. The dishes in the eight bowls mainly include braised pork with plum, braised chicken, crispy pork floss, Four Joy Meetballs, eight-treasure rice and other varieties. Generally, all kinds of dishes are processed into semi-finished products or finished products first, and then steamed in advance when they are ready to eat and serve.
Judging from the process of steaming vegetables, I like to eat traditional dishes cooked at rural banquets. The food steamed in a big wooden steamer is really delicious, and the kind I ate as a child is still fresh in my memory. There are four kinds of meat and four kinds of dishes in eight bowls in Henan. Pork is the main meat, elbow meat and hip meat are selected, which are divided into fermented bean curd, crispy pork floss, braised pork and square meat; Four kinds of meat are mainly skin dregs, kelp, vermicelli and tofu, which are made by unique technology.