A large clay vat holds black vinegar, a big wooden ladle pours it into a small blue-and-white bowl, a plate of dumplings with scallion and a plate of dressed cucumber sit beside it, and a cloth-covered jar stands behind.
Vinegars brewed from grain or fruit, made by solid-state or liquid fermentation.
The Chengdu Tonglan lists Baoning vinegar among seasonings from outside Chengdu, and its traditional brewing is on the national intangible heritage list.
In its section on the seasonings used in Chengdu, the Chengdu Tonglan by Fu Chongju (1909) lists Baoning vinegar under "seasonings from outside", alongside Wenjiang white soy sauce and Ziliujing snowflake salt among others. In 2021, "Vinegar Brewing Techniques (Traditional Brewing of Baoning Vinegar)" was announced with the fifth batch of the national intangible cultural heritage list, under the vinegar brewing item. The project description says that Baoning vinegar is reddish brown in colour and gentle in sourness.