food; CL:種|种[zhong3]
食 (shí) · 9 strokes
Depicts a mouth (亼) eating from a food vessel (皀).
物 (wù) · 8 strokes
Phonosemantic compound. 牛 represents the meaning and 勿 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "variety", depicting the variety of colors on a cow. Later the meaning shifted to "things".