Every day, WeChat friends circle has photos of eating and drying food. In essence, Yuan Mei of the Qing Dynasty had already played this trick. Yuan Mei, a literary giant in the Qing Dynasty, was also a foodie. According to his own food experience, he wrote a "Suiyuan Food List", which recorded 326 kinds of dishes and snacks, ranging from delicacies to side dishes, porridge and rice, to famous wines and teas.

Suiyuan Food List has also been included in the candidate list of 51 masterpieces handed down from ancient times in Nanjing. This book can be said to have reached a new height, and its time span and influence have continued to this day, and it is still regarded as a necessary classic by the chefs of major cuisines. On the "Suiyuan Food List", the Han cuisine in the Yangtze River valley is all inclusive

Eating is a kind of enjoyment, knowing how to eat, and it is a science. It is not difficult to write about the enjoyment and happiness of eating. But it is the highest level of being a gourmet to write something that makes people read, enjoy it, and smell delicious. Yuan Mei, as one of the three gifted scholars of Jiang Zuo during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty, was an incorrigible gourmet. He is very good at eating, eating well, eating well, and eating and writing with his heart.

Mencius said that "a gentleman cooks far away", but Yuan Mei, a great scholar, accumulated the essence of 41 years' unremitting "eating and enjoying" and wrote a menu with the garden that is unprecedented in China's diet and fills the gap in the history of Chinese food culture for thousands of years. This booklet records 326 kinds of dishes and snacks popular in China from the 4th century to the 8th century, ranging from delicacies and seafood to side dishes, porridge and rice, to famous wines and teas. It is a miniature encyclopedia of China diet. Yuan Mei is a native of Hangzhou, and he lives in Nanjing all the year round, so he covers all the delicious food of the Han people in the Yangtze River valley for hundreds of years.

Yu Xuerong, secretary-general of Jiangsu Catering Association, said that China's recipes from ancient times to "Menu with Garden" are all technical explanations, but Yuan Mei's menu of his own private kitchen with garden has a strong cultural smell, rich literary color and full of literati's elegance. This book is not thick, and there are not many words. You can skim through it in a moment. "But after reading it, I will feel that this old man will really eat; Your second impression is that this old man really knows how to write and eat. Up to now, Huaiyang cuisine, local cuisine, Hangzhou cuisine and Anhui cuisine are still inseparable from their ancestors and cannot jump out of this food list. " The book Suiyuan Food List, which has been recognized as a classic by chefs since its publication, is divided into fourteen aspects: information list, warning list, seafood list, jiangxian list, special sacrifice list, miscellaneous sacrifice list, feather family list, aquarium scale list, aquarium scale list, miscellaneous vegetarian list, small menu, snack list, rice porridge list and food and wine list. Twenty complete and strict operation requirements are put forward in the notice list, and fourteen precautions are put forward in the warning list.

Today, many viewpoints in Suiyuan Food List are still worth learning and using for reference. For example, Yuan Mei believes that the beauty of food lies not in quantity but in quality, and nutrition should be emphasized. "Tofu is well cooked, far better than bird's nest; If seaweed is not cooked well, it is not as good as bamboo shoots. " Another example is Yuan Mei's emphasis on food collocation. He quoted the phrase "match a woman with a husband" in the Book of Rites, explaining that food should be matched with "talent and appearance" and cooking should be matched with "the same kind". "Only when the Qing people match the Qing, the rich people match the thick, the soft people match the soft, and the rigid people match the rigid, can there be a wonderful harmony." For another example, Yuan Mei pays attention to the taste of dishes, demanding that dishes be "rich in flavor and not greasy; The taste should be fresh, not weak ... If you blindly pursue fatness, you might as well eat lard ... If you just crave weakness, you might as well drink water. " He demanded that the order of serving should be strictly observed. "The salty one should be first, and the light one should be later; The rich should be the first, and the thin should be the last; Those who have no soup should be the first, and those who have soup should be the last. "

The Menu with the Garden is a thin book, but it is very literary, with simple and refreshing words, so everyone can cook according to it. Yuan Mei also wrote out the recipe of a certain dish, from whom and from what family, which naturally became a guiding historical record for the whole society to improve cooking technology and study traditional dishes and cooking methods. Since its publication, this book has long been recognized as a classic of chefs, and it has been translated in English, French, Japanese and other major languages.

It is interesting that Yuan Mei can only be said to be a food culture theorist, but not a cook, because he can only eat but can't cook. The time it takes for tea eggs to cook "two sticks of incense"

Can you still eat these mouthwatering dishes recorded in Suiyuan Food List in Nanjing? Yu Xuerong said with regret: "It's hard!"

He introduced that Suiyuan Food List is not a cookbook, so although Suiyuan Food List has survived, Suiyuan cuisine has been lost for nearly 211 years. In the early 1981s, Xue Wenlong, the chef of Jinling Hotel and a national culinary master, who was called "King of Jinling Chef", was determined to "revive" the garden dishes that had been lost for many years, and devoted himself to studying them for more than 21 years. With the advent of one dish after another, Suiyuan cuisine once regained its vitality.

Yu Xuerong said, don't think that official dishes must be shark's fin and bear's paw. The emphasis on official dishes lies not in the rarity and rarity of raw materials, but in the preparation method and time-consuming luxury. When Xue Wenlong tried to restore the vegetable with the garden, he encountered such a question: How long does it take to cook the tea eggs in the menu with the garden? If you eat tea eggs according to the way of ordinary people, it is enough to cook them for 11 minutes, and at most it will be cooked for half an hour, which is already delicious. The "Suiyuan Food List" says: "The more cooked, the more tender: such as kidneys and eggs." He also said that the time for boiling tea eggs should be "two sticks of incense". For this reason, Xue Wenlong specially visited the old monk in the temple and learned that he paid a tribute to incense every moment. According to this calculation, the "two wick incense" takes about 4 hours. He tried again and again to cook tea eggs with 32 eggs, and finally found that tea eggs cooked for 4 hours were the best, and the marinade penetrated the yolk, which was delicious.

"The predecessor of No.1 Dazhongting Garden in Gulou once claimed to build private kitchens in Yuanjia, and now Laomendong Hotel' Ask Willow' is also claimed to have learned from Suiyuan Food List, but these are mostly fried concepts to attract diners." Yu Xuerong said that the real garden dishes have been basically lost with the death of Xue Wenlong. About Yuan Mei and Suiyuan Xue Bing: I saw Yuan Mei's tombstone when I was a child

"I saw Yuan Mei's tombstone when I was a child." Xue Bing, a famous scholar of literature and history in Nanjing, said that after Yuan Mei's death, his tomb was also within the scope of Suiyuan, at the Baibu slope of Wutai Mountain. It's at the entrance of Wutaishan bowling alley.

Xue Bing was studying in Jinling Middle School and lived in Shigu Road. The north of the school wall is where Suiyuan is located, and on his way home, he often went to Qingliang Mountain to play with Suiyuan generation. So I have seen Yuan Mei's tombstone with my own eyes. "His wife and little wife are still buried there."

Baibupo is named after a hillside in Wutai Mountain, and it takes 111 steps from bottom to top. Yuan Mei's tomb was dug during the Cultural Revolution, and the tombstone was directly removed when Wutai Mountain Gymnasium was built, which makes people feel sad.

Jianzhong Zhao, a member of Nanjing CPPCC, was very sad when he talked about Yuan Mei. He said that there is no memorial in Yuan Mei so far, and now even the cemetery can't be found.

Suiyuan contains 311 mu. In today's South Normal University,

Since Suiyuan haunts Yuan Mei, even the title of Suiyuan Food List is written. So Suiyuan, where Nanshi Normal University is located, is it the residence of Yuan Mei?

According to records, Suiyuan originated from Wu Yingji's Wujia Garden, one of the "Four Childes" in the late Ming Dynasty. Later, Wujia Garden was transferred several times to Cao Shi, the ancestor of Cao Xueqin, and became the Caojia Garden. During the Yongzheng period, the Caojia Garden was copied, and it was given to Sui Hede, who presided over the property raid, and then transferred to Yuan Mei. When Yuan Mei bought Suiyuan, the garden had been abandoned for many years, and Yuan Mei renamed it Suiyuan.

"Suiyuan is recorded to have 311 mu, how big is it?" Xue Bing said that the road between Shanghai Road and Qingdao Road and parallel to Guangzhou Road is called Suiyuan. At that time, Suiyuan should have been extended to the present Nanjing Normal University.

according to research, the eastern border of Suiyuan is on the west side of Qingdao Road, and the western border reaches the area of Wulongtan Park. In those days, there was Yuan Mei Temple on Guangzhou Road.