As the Spring Festival approaches, it is once again the "highlight moment" for potted vegetables. During traditional Chinese festivals, major restaurants, food chains, and fast food chains in Hong Kong offer various forms of potted dishes, ranging from high-end luxury dishes to mini dishes that cater to the needs of small families, as well as vegetarian dishes that align with the concept of healthy eating. Eating pickled vegetables has become a common festival banquet food culture in Hong Kong, and eating pickled vegetables during the Chinese New Year symbolizes "reunion" and "filling the bowl". Eating a pot of vegetables, also known as a food bowl, refers to eating dishes that are held in a bowl. Since the 1990s, the habit of eating potted vegetables has spread from villages to urban areas, gradually becoming a popular dietary custom throughout Hong Kong. As one of the traditional culinary cultures in Hong Kong, the food bowl was included in the first Hong Kong Intangible Cultural Heritage List published by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government in 2014, and was included in the first Hong Kong Intangible Cultural Heritage Representative List in 2017, possessing extremely high cultural value. There are many legends about food bowls, two of which are more common. Firstly, according to members of the Deng family in Ping Shan, Yuen Long, New Territories, Hong Kong, Wen Tianxiang, Lu Xiufu, and Zhang Shijie fled with Song Duanzong Zhao Shi in the late Southern Song Dynasty and arrived in the New Territories and other areas of Hong Kong. They were then received by villagers in wooden pots carrying food to welcome the emperor. Secondly, according to the Wen people of Xintian, Hong Kong, during the Qianlong Emperor's tour, the chef responsible for cooking the "Nine Great Guis" served the remaining food in a large bowl, which later became a court delicacy and the origin of pot dishes. Due to its suitability for large-scale cooking and simple consumption, as well as its suitability for festivals to entertain numerous ethnic groups, the tradition of eating pots has been passed down for hundreds of years in local tribal villages in the New Territories, and has been enduring for a long time. During the Spring and Autumn Festival in the walled villages of the New Territories, when worshiping ancestors, everyone will eat a bowl in front of their ancestors' tombs, known as the "Shishantou"; On specific days such as the "lighting of lamps" during the process of adding children, weddings, and religious ceremonies, collective enjoyment of potted vegetables is also arranged, allowing villagers to gather together to confirm their identity and pray for the blessings of their ancestors. Therefore, the bowl serves to unite the community and increase the sense of belonging and identity of the villagers. Nowadays, the traditional bowl culture is still passed down in the walled villages of the New Territories, with the more famous being the bowl tradition of the Deng family in Yuen Long. In the sixth year of Kaibao in the Northern Song Dynasty (973 AD), the Deng family moved to present-day Jintian in the New Territories. The family members continued to multiply, and later generations moved to Pingshan in Yuen Long to establish the Deng family's foundation. Yuen Long Xia Village is another branch, and the villagers have inherited the traditional custom of eating pots from generation to generation. Nowadays, many citizens and tourists come here to explore the oldest authentic pot dishes in Hong Kong. The culture of eating pots is long and unique, and its inheritance cannot be separated from the handmade skills of experienced pot chefs. Some of them passed on their cooking skills through father son inheritance, while others learned and accumulated cooking skills from others, and later became pot chefs. Experienced potting chefs have all hosted potting banquets in nearby villages, focusing on cooking traditional walled village style potting dishes. After selecting and preparing the ingredients, the pot chef cooks and seasons each food separately, and then sequentially places the food layer by layer in the pot. In the rural areas of the New Territories in the past, pork was a luxury food. During ancestor worship, 'Tai Gong dividing pork' is one of the important rituals, and pork has also become an important ingredient in pot dishes. In addition to "boiling pots", which involves cooking pot dishes, pot chefs are also skilled in their unique "pot making" technique, which involves sequentially adding ingredients into a pot based on experience. Different masters have their own characteristics, and there is no fixed standard. One is to put white radish, bamboo and bean turnips at the bottom, then pig skin, squid, dried eel and fried taro, then stewed pork, white fish balls and winter mushrooms, and finally put prawns symmetrically along the edge of the basin, and then put White cut chicken in the middle. In principle, the bottom layer of white radish, bamboo shoots, and bean curd absorb the flavor of the upper layer ingredients, adding the unique flavor of the pot dish. Xiaoliyuan Village in the New Territories is one of the oldest villages in Hong Kong, dating back to the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. Yang Jiu is a senior pot chef in the village, and he shared with me the close relationship between Hakka pot dishes and the traditional "nine major bamboo baskets". According to Master Yang's recollection, in the past, when Hakka people were preparing for weddings in Xiaoliyuan Village, they would solemnly cook the "Nine Great Treasures", which were high-quality ingredients rarely used in daily life. They were traditional dishes of Hakka villages and became a common culture of the village. The number "nine" means "long and lasting" and is an auspicious number; 'Gui' refers to a container used to hold food. The characteristic of the Hakka "Nine Great Chests" is the use of "rooster bowls" to hold food, with distinctive "roosters" painted on the bowls. Therefore, the "Nine Great Chests" use nine "rooster bowls" to hold nine dishes. The dishes of the "Nine Great Guis" have a beautiful meaning, that is, taking their "good intentions" on festive occasions, symbolizing blessings to diners. For example, Hakka braised pork symbolizes "the house is plump and the house is moist". Villagers eat it while adding, symbolizing abundance and surplus; The "shrimp" in tomato sauce is homophonic with "ha", meaning "laughing heartily"; The homophonic meaning of "fa cai" in "fa cai" oyster sauce and winter mushrooms "is" get rich ", and the homophonic meaning of" oyster sauce and winter mushrooms "is" good luck ", implying" getting rich is a good thing ". Other dishes include White cut chicken, cashew nuts, dried shrimps with vermicelli, braised pork with Rolls of dried bean milk creams, and sweet and sour eel. The braised pork in it is served with a rich and fragrant Nanru noodle sauce, which is salty with a hint of sweetness and increases appetite. This is the essence of Hakka braised pork. Due to the complex process of preparing the "Nine Great Baskets" and the need for a large amount of manpower and production time, people began to enjoy the nine dishes in one large bowl, gradually replacing the "Nine Great Baskets" with pot dishes, symbolizing "a full bowl full of food and clothing", and developing into a characteristic of Hakka pot dishes. Scholars have said that the food bowl originated from the ancient Chinese culture of communal eating, which promotes the relationship between village clans and family members through communal eating, and also reflects the identity of clan members, symbolizing the continuation of the spirit of clan unity. For hundreds of years, although food bowls have constantly innovated in form, the historical and cultural significance they contain deeply imprints the unchanging Chinese cultural genes of Hong Kong compatriots. To this day, many Hong Kong families and citizens gather together during festivals to share potted vegetables and taste the delicious dishes in them, continuing the traditional Chinese culinary culture. (New Society)