SC - Do you think it would be appropriate?

[Mike C. Baker]

Christi Redeker wrote:

> This weekend while unpacking I started looking through my Time Life Cooking
> series and in the Chinese book they have poetry that tells the type of
> foods, but not how they were prepared.

How detailed are the descriptions? Only ingredients, or alsosome reference to
method of preparation?

> My quandary is this, would it be appropriate to cook simple dishes using the
> type of foods prepared and making them with an Eastern flair, even though I
> have no actual recipes?

What are you comfortable with in terms of relaxing pureauthenticity in favor of
achieving the task (an edible,
pleasing feast)? If your primary goal is documentation,
then I propose that you need to track down at least one
documentable prepared item -- and, considering that
the article you reference explains that at least one
actual cookbook can be found, that would probably be
"better".

> So you all know, I found a reference in the book (I will bring it into work
> or send myself the reference here) to a cookbook written in the 13th century
> by a cook of a Chinese household.  They didn't have any recipes from it,
> just a reference to the book.

Is it sufficient reference to find translations / modernredactions / other
derived works? What other print resources
(including website references) might provide alternatives?
E.G.: I am not immediately aware of documentation for
inclusion of uncooked course elements in traditional
_Chinese_ cookery (not surprising, as this is not one
of my primary or even secondary areas of culinary study).
Pickled items, yes, but I consider those as "cooked by
alternative methods" even if never heated. However, I have
also seen fantastic presentations using carved or otherwise
shaped combinations of raw vegetables and flowers as
decorations for a platter of "oriental" <FITB>. Is this
practice borrowed from European forms? I don't know, but
I doubt that this would entirely be the case considering
the "oriental" attention to aesthetics in the formal meal
(tea ceremony, prescribed structure for conversation,
balancing ying-yang components, etc.).

> Also, does anyone know if Winter Melon is period?  And if so, where can I
> find one now?

Don't know if this is a pre-1600ce variety.As for finding: Imported?

- --
For "official" purposes: Mike C. Baker
For "fun": Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra (SCA)
           Kihe Blackeagle (Filk, Scouting, etc.)
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