"Customs are different in ten miles, and rules are changed in hundreds of miles." In our hometown in the countryside, the dishes at the wedding banquet are not called "Nine Big Bowls", but "Eight Big Bowls" or "Eight Big Pieces". There are four meat dishes and four vegetarian dishes, but they are all steamed in a steamer, which is also a type of steamed vegetables.

Of course, in many rural areas, the "nine bowls" served at wedding banquets are actually the same as the "eight bowls", but with one more dish. Whether it is "eight" or "nine", it has a pun meaning. Both eight and nine have very auspicious meanings. Eight means good luck and wealth, and nine means longevity. Most of them are imaginary numbers. There are not just eight or nine dishes served at rural wedding banquets, there are many, but these are just representative.

Some people say that the "eight bowls" of rural people's wedding banquets were born out of the Manchu and Han banquets. In fact, they are not. They existed very early. At that time, Zhao Zilong rewarded the soldiers with four meat dishes and four vegetarian dishes, but they were not called eight big bowls. As for the eight big bowls, it was because people worshiped the number eight that the term eight big bowls came into being. According to investigation, the eight bowls were finalized in the Tang Dynasty and were accepted by the people.

Eight is very auspicious. In the past, rural people held banquets at the Eight Immortals Table, with eight people sitting at one table and sixteen dishes on the table. These sixteen dishes included eight cold dishes and eight hot dishes, and the eight hot dishes were eight large bowls. Four meat and four vegetables, all taken out of the steamer. Many city people have never seen rural wedding banquets. Steamer dishes are the kind of temporary large earthen pot stoves. A steamer is placed on top of a large pot. It has to be stacked layer by layer many times to cook all the steamer dishes. Finished.

My father used to cook for others and was called the "chef father", which is now the cook. He also has a helper, and the two of them work together very well, one for side dishes and one for stir-fry. My father said that when hosting a banquet for guests, rural people not only have “eight plates and eight bowls”. In the past, rural people usually had less food and water, so they relied on having good food when hosting guests, including wine, meat, and less cooking. After eating, we will not be full, so we have to make a lot of cold dishes, stir-fries and various soups in advance. When we are almost done eating, we serve eight large bowls, and then they will also have steamed buns. If everyone eats steamed buns, they will have eight large bowls of vegetables, which will make them full. of.

The eight large bowls of meat dishes are not greasy, the ingredients are not bland, and they taste full of oil, which is very suitable for rural people's appetite. In our hometown, I remember the eight big bowls. The meat dishes include big pork skin (eight big pieces), steamed pork with rice noodles, fish pieces, ribs, and the vegetarian dishes include steamed lotus root, potatoes, tofu balls, eggplant, etc. I don’t know what the full name is, and the eight big bowls are The patterns are also different. Now that the living conditions in rural areas have improved, the first bowl of chicken, the second bowl of fish, and the third bowl of large meat skins are no longer used. Instead, there are eighteen bowls and twenty-eight bowls.