The Chinese Table.

In a Chinese meal there is no plated portion. Dishes (菜) are set in the middle for everyone; each diner has a bowl of rice (饭) or another staple, and takes a little at a time with chopsticks, eating it with the rice. The saying 几菜一汤 — "some dishes and a soup" — describes the home meal: a common rule of thumb is about as many dishes as diners, or one more, plus a soup. A balanced spread mixes a meat or fish dish or two, one or two vegetables, perhaps tofu or eggs; and a good cook varies the methods (a stir-fry, a braise, a steamed dish, a cold dish), the colours, the textures and the flavours, so that nothing repeats.

A banquet (宴席) multiplies the same idea and adds order: cold plates (冷盘) first, then hot dishes rising to a showpiece — a whole fish, which signifies abundance (年年有余), and a whole chicken or duck — then soup, a staple of noodles, dumplings or fried rice, and fruit or a sweet. Hospitality means serving guests first and keeping their bowls full. Since 2020, Chinese public health campaigns have encouraged serving chopsticks and spoons (公筷公勺) to keep diners' own chopsticks out of the shared dishes (XII.8). The workshop plans a meal.

Below: a home meal for the number of diners you choose, by the rule of thumb of one dish per diner plus one and a soup, split between meat or fish, vegetables and tofu or eggs, with the cooked food per dish for about 300 g of dishes per person (a feast about 450 g) and 150 g of cooked rice each.