{"id":6529,"date":"2015-08-23T23:30:28","date_gmt":"2015-08-23T23:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.froginawell.net\/frog\/?p=6529"},"modified":"2015-08-28T19:19:07","modified_gmt":"2015-08-28T19:19:07","slug":"the-garden-of-accord-food-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/2015\/08\/the-garden-of-accord-food-book\/","title":{"rendered":"The Garden of Accord Food Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yuan Mei’s Garden of Accord Food Book has been translated <\/a>into English. This is one of the classic Chinese texts on cooking, and by reading it I have already learned why my red-cooked meat is so inconsistent (cooking time matters a lot, so I guess you can’t just ignore it while you work on something else) and some always good general advice.<\/p>\n

Information about Uncertain Tastes<\/p>\n

We want the dishes taste rich, but not greasy; or taste light, but not plain. It is really hard to fully understand and grasp the skill. Slight mistakes lead to poor cooking. When we say rich flavor, it means that the cook should extract the essence and reject the dross. If one pursues only richness and heaviness, why not just eat lard? To \u201ctaste fresh and light\u201d refers to bringing out the prominent good flavor. If one seeks only weak and tasteless things, why \u00a0not just drink water?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

i.e. don’t overdo it. Except with garlic. There is no such thing as too much garlic.<\/p>\n

As you might expect, there is also plenty about how preparing food properly is analogous to all the other things a gentleman does.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Overcook the Food<\/p>\n

Everything has its basic nature, and cannot be distorted to be something else. Let nature take its course. For a good thing like birds\u2019 nests, why mash it down to make a ball?\u00a0 A sea cucumber is a sea cucumber, why cook it down to a sauce? When watermelon is cut, it won\u2019t stay fresh for long. Why make it into cakes? \u00a0When apples are too ripe, they are not crisp.\u00a0 Why steam them to make dry fruit? \u00a0Other things like Autumn Vine cakes from Zun Sheng Ba Jian and Magnolia Cake made by Li Liweng are all pretentiously overcooked pieces. It\u2019s like twisting osier branches to make cups\u2014they lose their main features. It\u2019s also like daily ethical behavior; one can benefit the household just by performing normal good virtue.\u00a0 There is no need for strange practices.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While the book is essential for understanding the development of Chinese food, Yuan Mei is a pretty simple cook, who would be lost in the world of modern Chinese banqueting.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Eat with Your Ears<\/p>\n

What is an \u201cEar Banquet\u201d?\u00a0 It is a dinner provided in pursuit of fame. Wishing to serve something precious, so as to boast to the guests, is an ear banquet, not really [the serving of] a delicious dish. You should know that if tofu is done well, it\u2019s better than \u00a0birds\u2019 nests. And if you don\u2019t cook sea cucumber [the text says \u201csea vegetable,\u201d which Giles 1923:261 takes as an error for sea cucumber] right, it\u2019s not as good as vegetables and bamboo shoots. I have said that fish, chicken, pork, and duck are the knights of the kitchen.\u00a0 Each has its basic own flavor and cooking style. Sea cucumbers and \u00a0birds\u2019 nests are like ordinary persons\u2014no characteristics.\u00a0 They can be cooked well only with the help of other food. \u00a0I have seen an official\u2019s dinner, each bowl is as big as a big jar, containing four liang<\/em> of water-cooked birds\u2019 nest\u2014no taste at all. The guests were trying to compliment him. I smiled and said: \u201cwe came here to eat birds\u2019 nests, not to traffic in birds\u2019 nests.\u201d If the valuable item hasn\u2019t been cooked well, although there\u2019s large amount, it\u2019s a waste. If he serves it only to boast how rich he is, why can\u2019t he just put a hundred jewels in each bowl, or a quantity of gold? Then it doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s inedible.<\/p>\n

(Birds\u2019 nests, by themselves, are tasteless. Their virtues, other than the medicinal one of providing digestible protein and minerals, are that they provide a crunchy texture and are very good at absorbing other flavors.\u00a0 They are good only if cooked in a very flavorful soup.\u00a0 Sea cucumbers, also valued more for their medicinal protein and mineral value than for their flavor, are somewhat more flavorful, but do indeed need much supplementing to make them good.)<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Eat with Your Eyes<\/p>\n

What is an \u201ceye meal\u201d? \u00a0An eye meal is one in which there are too many dishes at a time. Now some people pursue the fame of the food; they cover the table with dishes and stacks of plates and bowls.\u00a0 They eat with their eyes, not with their mouths. [Angl. \u201ctheir eyes are bigger than their stomachs.\u201d]\u00a0 They don\u2019t know that when famous writers and calligraphers write too much in a short time, there must be some failures; when famous poets write too many poems, there must be some bad lines. It is the same with a good chef. In one day, he can probably make four or five good dishes; that is about his limit. But to arrange a huge feast, even with others\u2019 help, most likely will result in a mess. Because more people come to help, there are more different opinions. [\u201cToo many cooks spoil the broth.\u201d]\u00a0 This can result in bad discipline during the cooking. I once went to a merchant\u2019s house for dinner. They had three tables of dishes\u2014desserts of sixteen types, total main course dishes of more than 40 types. The host felt proud of his treats, thinking it must have increased his face in front of the guests. However, after I got home, I needed to cook some congee to satisfy my hungry stomach. Due to my experience, I think this merchant\u2019s dinner was less than successful\u2014indeed, it was not very sophisticated! The Southern-dynasty writer Kong Linzhi (369-423) once said: \u201cPeople nowadays have many dishes, but rather outside the mouth\u2014it\u2019s more for the eyes\u2019 satisfaction.\u201d In my words, too many dishes on one table create unsatisfying views as well as unsatisfying flavors.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They are looking for a publisher, so if you happen to own a press, or have enough money to provide a publication subsidy, you should get in touch with them.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.krazykioti.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yuan Mei’s Garden of Accord Food Book has been translated into English. This is one of the classic Chinese texts on cooking, and by reading it I have already learned why my red-cooked meat is so inconsistent (cooking time matters a lot, so I guess you can’t just ignore it while you work on something…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9yoH3-1Hj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6529"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6537,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6529\/revisions\/6537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}