The first time I went to a rural banquet, I only realized how much people can eat when the dishes were served in basins.

When I was little, whether my own family was hosting a banquet or I was tagging along with relatives to visit family, I could always enjoy a table of authentic farmhouse food, and just thinking about it now makes my mouth water! Slaughtering pigs, killing chickens, moving tables, it was so lively! The kitchen was all outdoors, with a canopy set up outside. Rural families were not well-off back then, so being able to eat a whole table of dishes really meant enjoying a feast! The grand rural banquets carry the local regional culture. The banquet places more emphasis on the quality of ingredients, and pays more attention to balanced combinations and the nutritional health of the diners. Here they do not go in for metaphysical things like the eight-eight banquet, do not fuss over the ratio of meat to vegetables or cold to hot dishes, and do not insist on pairs. Each table only serves seven dishes, all of them hot.

1. The fresh cabbage has already been cleaned.

2. Stewed pork is the main dish of the day's banquet, and every part of the pig is cut into chunks the size of shaobing flatbreads and stewed.

3. For 180 people to eat stir-fried liver tips, just slicing the pork liver is this impressive.

4. The sour cowpeas are also served in big basins.

4. Three big pots of rice need to be cooked. First, wash the rice.

5. The second step is to cook it in the pot, turning raw rice into cooked rice.

6. After the cooked rice is done, it still has to be put into wooden buckets and steamed again in the pot, which makes the rice even tastier.

7. The meat slices for stir-frying are very thick, about the same size as the meat we usually stew. Apart from the cabbage and the stir-fried liver tips, all the dishes are stir-fried with meat.

8. The meat slices need to be stir-fried for a long time, so they are very flavorful.

9. Add dried vegetables and stir-fry together.

10. This is meat slices stir-fried with sour cowpeas, using a shovel as a tool.

11. Teacher Grassland Cavalry, carrying twin cameras, also came to join in the stir-frying.

12. This is blanching pork cut into large chunks.

13. The head chef caramelized sugar, then added a bucket of light soy sauce, put in two large sticks of cinnamon, seven or eight roots of angelica, added salt, and then added some water. Nothing else was put in. I watched every one of these steps with my own eyes.

14. Then put the blanched meat chunks into the broth and start stewing! First over high heat, then over low heat, stewing for about an hour.

15. The scene of eighteen tables looks like this.

16. When the skin of the braised pork becomes glossy and translucent, the meat is done stewing.

17. The dishes are all served in big basins, and that is what you call a real bargain!

18. Stir-fried meat with pickled cabbage really whets the appetite.

19. The stir-fried liver tips are cooked to just the right degree.

20. Dining in the cool breeze under the shade canopy, people have an especially good appetite.

Ah! Say no more, it is all just memories.

I have not had a rural banquet in a long time, and just thinking about it makes my mouth water a little.

Back then the banquets were not as exquisitely presented as restaurant dishes, but they had a different flavor, with busy but happy figures everywhere.

Everyone's enthusiasm and blessings, wrapped in the rich fragrance of the rural soil, made the banquet warm and moving.

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