Four Treasures Meat

Numerology can have different meanings from one region to the next. It tends to be a dialectic thing: the number four is avoided at all costs in Guangzhou, as in Cantonese it is phonetically the same as the word ‘death’. In Mandarin and other regional dialects, the number four does not have any negative symbolism, and the Four Treasures Meat dish is popular in Beijing. Traditionally, the ‘four treasures’ refer to poultry feets, wings, tongues and viscera — a mixture that would not go down w