Eight small cold dishes line one side of a long table, the other holds star-anise duck braised in a clay pot over charcoal, braised pork belly, prawns, a steamer of buns and bowls of vegetables, and a hand lifts the lid off another pot.
Course after course
Introduction
Banquets served as a fixed sequence of many courses.
Set-course banquets are banquets served as a fixed sequence of many courses. Some water banquets have twenty-four dishes: eight cold dishes first, then sixteen hot ones, the hot courses ending with four closing dishes. The Qing palace had only Manchu feasts and Han feasts and no fixed banquet called the "Manchu-Han Imperial Feast"; nor were feasts limited to one hundred and eight dishes and some ran to one hundred and sixty-eight or one hundred and ninety-eight. Size, number of courses and names of dishes differ. The format of the whole feast is what belongs here, while the family meal belongs to Family and Village Banquets and the food of the palace to Imperial Cuisine.