What are the eight bowls of Xianju?

The eight bowls refer to: Caihe lotus seeds (or white lentils), Xiangzi sea cucumbers (or meat ginseng), Tieguai pork, Zhongli bowl meat; Dongbin big fish, Xiangu pork skin soak, Guojiu soaked bream, and Guolao tofu.

Xianju Eight Bowls is an orthodox recipe for entertaining guests and friends in Xianju, Zhejiang. It has a long history, authentic selection of ingredients, exquisite production, rigorous arrangement, wide application and profound cultural origins. It is the essence of Xianju’s traditional food culture.

Xianju's traditional recipe is "Eight Big Bowls", which means good luck. "Eight" is an auspicious number in Chinese culture.

Chinese classical culture uses yin and yang, the five elements, and the eight trigrams as the main outline, and thus the second trigram is Kun (≡≡) in the acquired eight trigrams. Kun is the earth, mother, cow, and multitude, and "eight" is added.

It is the largest even number within ten, so it has many auspicious meanings.

Taoist culture has a long history and has created the "Eight Immortals" with many representatives. The table for eating is called the "Eight Immortals Table". It is square, with a side length of three feet and six (Lu Ban Rule), which is 1 meter. The four stools for sitting are four feet long (Lu Ban Rule).

It is called a four-foot stool, with two people sitting on each side, eight people on the first seat, "eight big bowls" of dishes on one table, and sixteen to twenty-four dishes on the table, which are collectively referred to as "eight big and eight small" among the people.