如同餓虎 Like a Starving Tiger
師徒們遂牽馬挑擔，徑至府中，一一相見。郡侯即命看茶擺齋，少頃齋至。那八戒放量吞餐，如同餓虎。师徒们遂牵马挑担，径至府中，一一相见。郡侯即命看茶摆斋，少顷斋至。那八戒放量吞餐，如同饿虎。
逐句解 Line by line
So master and disciples led the horse and shouldered the baggage and went straight to the prefect's own compound, where they were introduced all round.
一一 means one by one — and the first of the two takes yí rather than yì, because it has to settle its tone against the second one, which has already shifted. It is a small chain reaction, and Chinese speakers perform it without ever thinking about it.
The prefect at once ordered tea to be served and a vegetarian meal laid out, and in a little while the meal arrived.
齋 is the meatless meal proper to monks, and the word does double duty for the food, the fast and the religious feast alike. Watch this character: an offering of 齋 to heaven is what started all the trouble three years ago.
Bajie gave his appetite free rein and bolted the food like a starving tiger.
放量 is to let one's capacity off the leash, and 量 is liàng, capacity — the same character read liáng would mean to measure. Bajie is doing the opposite of measuring.
The pilgrims are fed, and the novel cannot resist. Bajie eats like a starving tiger in a prefecture where children are being traded for grain.
It would be easy to read this as tasteless, and the book is not unaware — but it is doing something more interesting than a fat joke. The famine has been described to us in prices and documents. Here is the first time we see food actually on a table in Fengxian, and what the scene shows is that there is still food in the yamen. Nobody comments on it. It simply sits there next to the notice about the price of grain.