Zhushan Steamed Bowl Banquet 竹山合碗席

Zhushan Steamed Bowl Banquet (竹山合碗席) is a feast of dishes prepared and steamed in bowls, a custom of Zhushan County (竹山县) in Shiyan (十堰), Hubei, that has been kept for several hundred years. In 2015 the Shiyan city government added it to the fifth batch of the city's intangible cultural heritage list. People in Zhushan treat the bowls as the dish to set before honoured guests and as a fixture of the Spring Festival table.

Where it comes from

Old accounts retold by Jimu News (极目新闻) place Zhushan in the ancient state of Yong (庸国), where villagers lived like one family. When a guest arrived, the neighbour to the east gathered wild greens, the one to the west picked fruit, the one to the south killed poultry and the one to the north caught fish. Each cooked their share, and the bowls were put together into one meal. That gave the banquet its name, literally 'joined bowls feast'. The craft has been passed down within families.

How it is made

In February 2024 People's Daily Online visited Yang Xixiu (杨昔秀), a 62-year-old cook in Nanmen village (南门村), Chengguan town (城关镇), as she filled New Year orders: she cut meat, packed it into bowls and steamed them. Laid out on her board were half-prepared tiaozi rou (条子肉, strips of pork), xiao su rou (小酥肉, small crisp-fried pork pieces) and fenzheng rou (粉蒸肉, pork steamed in rice meal). She made more than 1,000 bowls in the last lunar month before the festival, and customers working away from Zhushan ordered them to send to friends elsewhere.

How it is eaten

The banquet follows set menus. According to Shiyan Evening News (十堰晚报), there are seven kinds, distinguished by which dishes are combined and the order in which they are served. Their names include 'Dai Zi Shang Chao' (带子上朝, 'bringing the son to court'), 'Ba Da Jian' (八大件, 'eight big dishes'), 'Si Da Liu Xiao' (四大六小, 'four large and six small'), 'Wu Ma Ta Si Niu' (五马踏四牛, 'five horses tread on four oxen') and 'Liu Xing Gan Yue' (流星赶月, 'meteor chasing the moon'). The serving procedure is fixed. The banquet is laid on for weddings and funerals, housewarmings, longevity banquets and birthdays, and families hire cooks such as Yang to make it for moves, weddings and births.