Eight cold dishes are the names of the dishes with the theme of clothing, rituals, tao, desire, art, literature, Zen, politics;

Sixteen hot dishes are divided into four town table, eight pieces, four sweeping as the theme.

"Clothing": egg yolk made of egg coat tied to the dish, egg coat as thin as transparent paper, golden without miscellaneous, edible red and green silk in the egg coat embellished with dragon and phoenix patterns, which also indicates that the emperor's yellow robe.

"Gift": go to the deer tendon Maundy white into a hook, like a bow, (there are other materials instead of) the view of the white crystal, placed in the dish in order, reflecting the polite manners.

"Towers": with five-spice rot Zhang rolled up the fragrant filling (to the rain after the Luo River embankment in the fragrant Ai bushes born in the soil ear, fungus. In the vernacular, it is called the "ground circle".) Outside do not know its inside, inside do not know its flavor, eat into the mouth to have an indescribable sense of freshness.

"Want": take the three-year-old dog outside the waist flower cut into slices, in the opening, embedded years full of rooster waist as a shape, embellished with berries, with the Cordyceps around the plate, look at the lofty colorful, eat the yang and make up for the deficiency.

"Art": in the past is the use of crisp lotus bird tongue into the dish. The reference to the lotus as a painting, the sparrow singing spring, is a metaphor for picturesque rivers and mountains, singing and dancing meaning. Of course, today we want to protect birds, bird tongue has been replaced.

"Wen": the use of green bamboo shoots carp beard into a dish. Bamboo shoots are the soul of bamboo, bamboo is the friend of Wen, and Wen becomes the reason of the world (carp).

"Zen": Wu Zetian was once a Buddhist monk, is considered to have a relationship with Zen. This dish is vegetarian without oil and meat.

"Politics": made of goose breasts and goose palms. The goose knows the cold and warmth and migrates, while the goose palm carries the body and floats in the water. It is a metaphor for those who are in power should know the world's warmth and coldness, and the way public opinion is carried and covered. Today, goose breasts have been replaced by goose breasts.

The four town table

1, Yan Cai, Luoyang area of Yan Cai more named "Peony Yan Cai". Because in October 1973, Premier Zhou Enlai accompanied Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on a tour of Luoyang, Luoyang City, the leadership of the water table reception. The famous chef made a peony flower with eggs and put it on the bird's nest. Premier Zhou was very happy to see it and said, "The peony in Luoyang is the best in the world, and the peony flower is also in the dish". From then on, the name of the dish was changed to "Peony Bird's Nest".

2, green onion steak tiger head carp, carp to Mengjin Yellow River produced by the long bearded carp for the best, the plate for the open mouth and head on the pouncing shape. The head of the fish must be to the upper seat of the honored, the elders, or your friends, by sitting in the upper seat of the people first chopsticks, expressed a kind of respect and courtesy.

3, cloud-covered curd meat, sitting in the lower seat first chopsticks. According to legend, Wu Zetian's four sons were all dissatisfied with her, except for Princess Taiping, who was quite appreciated. Later, Taiping married Xue Shao as his wife, and when he sent his daughter to get married, Wu used his own breast milk to paint on the meat and told his daughter to eat it, so that her daughter would not forget her mother's heart.

4, the seaweed rose Bai Cai, is seaweed stewed cabbage, called "Bai Cai" for the figure of an auspicious heart. Cabbage is sometimes vegetarian, is actually for the first two meat dishes for the mouth.

Eight pieces

"Eight pieces" is divided into five before and three after.

The first five are "fast three kinds", "five willow fish", "fish", "chicken", The first five are "quick three kinds", "five willow fish", "fish nuts", "chicken", and "popping crane breast".

The last three are three sweet dishes, usually eight treasures of rice, sweet and sour pork.

Four sweeps

The four sweeps are, in order, "shark's fin with flowers", "golden monkey to explore the sea", "open squid to fight for spring", "Bibo umbrella pill "

"Bibo umbrella pill" is "pill", but because it sounds like "finished", when Wu Zetian was sick ate the last dish, heard as "finished". "finished", she disheveled long sigh, then realized, but everything is too late. Then screamed, water seat I also ------ a life. With this reason, the later people eat water seat can not help but some spoiled, always think of a woman's death. It is said that from the Northern Song Dynasty, it is in this last dish changed to a bowl of sour and sharp taste of the egg coat soup, has been retained until today.