The Way Of Eating Appears In South China Morning Post & The Beijinger

This Qing Dynasty Foodie Taught Farm-To-Table Two Centuries

Before It Was Cool

“Like many people, we like to read and collect cookbooks but until recently we had never used one published more than 200 years ago. That has now changed thanks to the publication of an English version of a Qing dynasty cookbook and general meditation on food and eating first published more than 225 years ago. . . .” Read the whole article by Robynne Tindall in The Beijinger.

“The Way of Eating: Yuan Mei’s Manual of Gastronomy is far more than a cookbook: it is food history at its finest, a window into a fascinating and long-lost world.” –Ruth Reichl, author of Save Me the Plums

English paperback edition only $29.95! Berkshire subscribers: use discount coupon FEBWAY to get 10% off.

250 pages, English, Paperback 9781614728276, $29.95, Hardcover 9781614728283, $39.95

South China Morning Press: “Entertaining”

We’re delighted to see the bilingual edition reviewed by Susan Jung in the South China Morning Post – “Recipes from the Garden of Contentment – a gastronomic guide from 1792″  – especially at a time when Chinese food has been getting a bad rap. And it’s great to see that the writer noticed how much Sean Chen’s annotations add to the great Chinese classic of gastronomy:

The chapter titled “Objectionables” is especially entertaining, and Chen’s annotations are just as opinionated. “What are ‘meals for the ears’?” reads the original text. “Meals for the ears exist only for bolstering name and reputation. By boasting the names of expensive and coveted ingredients, flaunting one’s wealth to esteemed guests, such meals tease one’s ears but confer no satisfaction to one’s tongue.”

Chen adds, “Sadly, dishes for the ears, or ‘ear meals’, are a mainstay of gastronomy, be it Eastern or Western cuisine. Foie gras is fantastic, but if a restaurant serves it too thin (less than five millimetres thick) just to be able to mention it in a dish, that’s an ear meal. White truffle oil (usually containing no truffle shavings whatsoever) in your pasta? Ear meal. ‘Kobe beef’ hamburgers? Yet another ear meal.” Read the whole article.

Recipes from the Garden of Contentment: Yuan Mei’s Manual of Gastronomy – Bilingual Edition

468 pages English/Chinese with appendices, Paperback 9781614728528, $125, Hardcover 9781614728450, $140. Berkshire subscribers: use discount coupon FEBRECIPES to get 10% off with free shipping.