In the long years, there were three large-scale population migrations in Yancheng. It has brought progress between the integration of different eating habits and pursuits of different cates, which adds the unique sea salt culture and local characteristic delicious ingredients with a special process and great taste, thus Yancheng Eight-Bowl emerges at the right moment.
The Yancheng Eight-Bowl was created with a legendary color. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, it’s said that Sun Jian, the first assistant of county magistrate of Yandu County, came across a family plot when taking office. He has no clue after repeated investigation, thus he cudgeled his brains and only to wake up from sleep. In his dream, he used eight courses of dishes to feast eight immortals and solved the case, thus the “Eight-bowl” was thus being created.
Since the birth of Eight-Bowl for over one thousand years, the relatively cured local eight banquet dishes such as “Stewed Pork Rind, Red-braised Glutinous Rice and Red-braised Long-tailed Anchovy” are gradually formed. On this basis, the middle eight-bowl food materials represented by “Assorted Stewed Fish Maw, Steamed Mandarin Fish” are created; The typical foods like “Clear Soup Shark’s Fin, Chicken Porridge and Sea Cucumber” are the most distinguished top eight bowls, thus forming the eight-bowl series banquet dishes, with more and more abundant cultural connotations.
At the present, the Yancheng Eight-Bowl has been famous far and wide, which gives out the strong and rustic tastes, and becomes the name card of Yancheng Food Culture and nostalgia on the tip of the tongue.
