One of the most productive food-and-eating radicals. Built on a covered grain vessel, 食 indexes everything to do with meals, hunger, fullness, and the kitchen, but it almost always appears in its left-position variants 饣 (simplified) or 飠 (traditional): 饭, 饺, 饿, 饱, 馆, 饮. Free-standing 食 is more literary.