The Eight Big Bowls of Old Beijing are Big Bowl of Chicken, Big Bowl of Yellow Fish, Big Bowl of Elbow, Big Bowl of Dumplings, Big Bowl of Rice Vermicelli, Big Bowl of Buckle Meat, Big Bowl of Pine Meat and Big Bowl of Spare Ribs.

The so-called "eight bowls" originated from the traditional banquet, traditional weddings and funerals, and even social days, all need to gather and eat. This is the same important folk festival with the village singing opera, due to the venue, tables and chairs, the number is not enough, so we have to take with the food, eat that way. The content of the table, to big fish and meat and other usually rare things, the requirements to do fast, for the top, the portion is enough, the flavor is basically the same, mainly steamed and boiled, with a large bowl of coarse porcelain to show that the amount of full.

Today's Beijing's eight bowls are roughly of two types, basic and high-end. The so-called basic style is made entirely of pork, and this type of bowl is nicknamed "Pork Eight". There are buckle meat, meatballs, split bone meat, techniques to steam, stew, stew mainly. High-end models of the eight bowls, in addition to the basic models of pork added to the chicken and fish such as ingredients, that is, "cherry meatballs buckle chicken, braised elbows carp". The so-called upscale model is then much richer than the basic model. p>In the era of scarcity, "eight bowls" to bring people closer to each other, dilute the boredom of daily life, is also the most simple feast of the working people in the past, when the standard of living is not high, you can eat the basic version of the eight bowls has not been easy, even if it is to quench the thirst of the boutique.

For eating "eight bowls" such banquets, the Chinese people are to treat people with courtesy, need to be according to the affinity, reputation to determine the order of seating, high moral standing, as the elders of the people first seated. Although there is a difference in order, but the dishes are the same, with big fish and meat. The same flavor.