When Yuan Mei is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is Gan Long's talent and poetic leader. In fact, he has another identity-eating goods. As a professional gourmet, Yuan Mei wrote Garden Food Collection on the basis of 40 years of food practice, which recorded 326 kinds of dishes and snacks ranging from delicacies to porridge, wine and tea. It is a miniature encyclopedia of China's cooking. Recently, Lu, an associate professor at the School of Sociology of Nanjing University, brought an online guide to masterpieces handed down in January, introducing the food culture of food streets and gardens.

Garden food list makes food culture a serious subject.

The history of Suiyuan can be traced back to Wujiao Garden in the late Ming Dynasty. It is a part of Cao Yin family garden woven by Jiangning in Kangxi period of Qing Dynasty. Mr. Cha once said that the accompanying garden in A.D. was the Grand View Garden. Later, considering that Sui Hede took over weaving in Jiangning, it was named Sui Weaving Garden and Sui Garden. In the 13th year of Qing Qianlong, Yuan Mei bought this garden, named it Suiyuan, and was buried in Suiyuan after his death.

Yuan Mei's greatest contribution in his life was to build the capital garden. This garden of Cao's former residence, which was changed from a garden to a garden, not only became the place name and business card of Jinling, but also became synonymous with the love and yearning of literati. In terms of food culture, Yuan Mei, an old man in the garden, spent nearly half a century writing A Dream of Red Mansions, which was a very important food masterpiece in Qing Dynasty and Han Dynasty, and was published in 57 years. During the Qianlong period, Yuan Mei, a leading poet, described the diet and cooking skills of the Han people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang in ancient Chinese according to his 40-year diet practice, which was called "Jiangsu and Zhejiang Cuisine List" by some people. Let the food culture become a serious academic.

Yuan Mei was the first person in China who claimed to have "good taste".

Lu said that since Confucius set up a model image of "frugality", he left the sage's teaching that "a gentleman seeks truth and does not seek food" to future generations; What's more, Mencius' "Eating and drinking is worthless" and "A gentleman stays away from the kitchen" have become the inherent mentality of literati in the history of China. In the history of China, no matter how high a person's moral cultivation is, no matter how deep his knowledge is, no matter how prominent his achievements and prestige are, as long as he is delicious, or his love for food is discovered, it must be delicious. Therefore, in the history of China's diet, there appears a seemingly strange phenomenon, that is, "developed diet culture and backward diet culture research" coexist. Therefore, there is a phenomenon of "pseudo-morality" in China culture, that is, "God is thick-tongued and thick-tongued, and thieves are prostitutes." No one dares to talk openly about the taste of food. However, Yuan Mei, a great scholar in Qing Dynasty, dared to criticize the world and openly declared that "Yuan Zi had a vision"! He said he had nine hobbies in his life. The first one is "taste", but reading comes last. Later, Yuan Mei took diet as a discipline, spent more than half a century studying it, and wrote the Table of Diet with the Garden. Diet in life has become a serious issue in Yuan Mei's hands.

All 36 kinds of vegetables have been used up.

There are many versions of Suiyuan Food List, among which Suiyuan Menu is the earliest block print. In addition, there is the first year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty. Then recommend Zhonghua Book Company 2009 edition and Nanjing Publishing House 2009 edition.

The content is quite rich, which is divided into 14 aspects: attention list, attention list, seafood list, river fresh list, featured animal list, omnivore list, feather list, aquarium scale list, aquarium scale list, miscellaneous vegetables list, small menu, snack list, rice porridge list and gourmet wine list. Among them, there are 20 complete and strict operation requirements in the comment list, and there are 14 comments in the comment list.

Then it describes in detail 326 kinds of dishes and meals popular in China from14th century to18th century. At that time, people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces hardly ate or drank. The varieties listed in each list are also impressive. For example, Dried Longrenzi introduces more than 30 kinds of dishes, involving cooking methods of domestic animals such as pigs, cows, sheep, deer, roe deer and civets. More than 50 kinds of snacks such as noodles, cakes, jiaozi, wonton, zongzi, steamed bread, noodle tea, zongzi, jiaozi, cakes and bean porridge are introduced. It condenses the rich cooking experience accumulated by Jiangsu and Zhejiang chefs for a long time, which is precious.

The food in the book is still very popular, and the ideas in it are still worth learning.

This is a very thin book, but it is very literary. The text is simple and fresh, and everyone can learn from it. Yuan Mei also wrote a recipe for a certain dish, and its origin naturally became a guiding historical record for the whole society to improve its cooking skills and learn traditional dishes and cooking methods. Since its publication, this book has been regarded as a chef's classic and has been translated into English, French and Japanese.

Interestingly, Yuan Mei can only be said to be a food culture theorist, not a chef, because he can only eat but not cook.

However, the "Garden Food List" covers everything from material selection to tasting. It can be seen that China's cooking has not changed much fundamentally for hundreds of years, and his dishes are still very popular and practical.

Up to now, many viewpoints in Eating with the Garden are still worth learning and learning from. For example, Yuan Mei thinks that the beauty of food lies not in quantity, but in quality, and nutrition should be emphasized. "Tofu is well done, far better than bird's nest; If it is not cooked well, seaweed is better than bamboo shoots. " . Another example is Yuan Mei's emphasis on food collocation. He quoted "special order" to say that "husband and wife should match" and explained that dishes should match talents and looks, and cooking should match the same kind. "Only when it is refined and clear, rough and rough, rigid and soft, and properly matched, will there be wonderful harmony." For another example, Yuan Mei pays attention to the taste of dishes and requires "thick but not greasy"; The taste should be fresh, not light. If you blindly pursue obesity, you'd better eat lard. If you just want to be weak, you'd better drink water. "He demanded strict adherence to the order of serving." Salty people should be first, light people should be later; Thick ones come first, thin ones come later; Don't make soup yet, make soup in moderation. "