Wu Yi Braised Bowls

Wu Yi Braised Bowls

　　The people of Wu Yi are known for their simple and frugal lifestyle. On regular days, they usually serve guests dumplings or hand-pulled noodles, and even during the New Year celebrations when hosting relatives and friends, the fare typically consists of stir-fried dishes and drinks. However, they place special importance on wedding ceremonies. When a wedding takes place, the host family will definitely prepare a banquet, commonly referred to as “ordering bowls,” which is what we are introducing here — the Wu Yi Braised Bowls. The term “braised bowls” here does not refer to a single dish but to a table full of steamed dishes. It is said that since the Song Dynasty, rural areas in Wu Yi have had the custom of holding banquets using braised bowls, locally referred to as “a spread.” Wu Yi Braised Bowls use exquisite ingredients and are meticulously prepared, with each village having its own specialists in making them. Typically, the host family planning a wedding will inform the specialist in advance, and two days before the wedding, the specialist is invited to the home to begin preparations. Traditionally, the braised bowls consist of eight “pure bowls,” including Dongpo pork, lean meat, fatty meat, pork knuckle, rice flour pork, assorted stewed meat, meatballs, and spare ribs. After attending a wedding banquet and returning home, people would often be asked, “How many pure bowls did you have?” A “pure bowl” means a bowl that contains only meat, with no vegetables at all. As living standards have improved, wedding banquets have expanded from eight braised bowls to ten or twelve, and the varieties have also evolved. Nowadays, the focus is on the four main items: chicken, fish, pork knuckle, and four-joy meatballs, while also emphasizing a balance of meat and vegetables. This has led to the creation of many new varieties such as seafood, tofu, mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, bean starch sheets, and stewed tofu pudding, but each bowl still contains a single type of food.