5 elements

I attempted my first Ba Bao Fan (八寶飯), or Eight-Treasure Rice Pudding, many years ago. I made it as a gift for a lovely Chinese couple to celebrate the Chinese New Year, our friendship, and the birth of their first son.

According to traditional Chinese beliefs and culture, everything in the universe is generated by the combination of and movements between five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. So the characteristics of these five elements manifest in all things in the universe.